I was driving my two year old, Ellen to the babysitter one morning when we had an interesting conversation.
“Where’d Hewen go?” she asked.
“Your sister GRACE is with Mommy, Mommy is driving her to preschool, and by the way, YOUR name is Ellen,” I replied.
“She go schoooowel? Me wan go schooowel,” she said.
“Well, I know you’d love to go to school, but you’re not old enough yet, by the way, how old are you, Ellen?” I quizzed her.
“Me five!” she announced.
“Nooo, you’re two,” I explained, holding up two fingers.
“NO! Me FWIVE!!!” she screamed.
“Honey, listen, calm down, think about it,” I reasoned (temporarily forgetting that reasoning with a two year old is about as smart as trying to train your cat to heard sheep). “Your older sister, GRACE, is only four, and you’re the LITTLE sister, you’re just two, get it?”
“Oh-tay,” she relented.
“So how old are you?” just wanting to make sure I had gotten through.
“ME TWOO!” she grinned and held up two fingers.
I smiled and sighed, apparently I’d gotten somewhere.
I love the fact that she longs to learn and has finally gotten to an age where she’ll slow down long enough to climb on our laps for a us to read to her.
We’re really fortunate that Grace loves school too. Although, many is the evening when we ask “Grace, what did you learn about in school today?” only to have her shrug and answer “things.” I thought that kind of thing wasn’t supposed to happen till at least junior high.
Research has established that preschool education can produce substantial gains in children's learning and development. Christian preschools not only give kids a head start, they also lay a foundation of faith and relationships for children.
The Barna Research Institute discovered that a person’s lifelong behaviors and views are generally developed when they are young – particularly before they reach the teenage years. A person’s moral foundations are generally in place by the time they reach age nine (fourth grade). A majority of Americans make a lasting determination about the personal significance of Christ’s death and resurrection by age 12 (seventh grade).
It always boggles my mind when parents proudly proclaim that they’re not forcing their religion on their child, they want them to make up their minds for themselves when they’re old enough. Obviously these parents don’t genuinely believe whatever faith they claim to profess because if you KNOW and BELIEVE that God is real and that the Bible is true, why would you treat that knowledge as if it were merely an option, a choice. We inoculate our children with vaccines to protect them from deadly diseases, why not share with them that God loves them and wants what is best for them while they’re young too?
This is National Lutheran Schools Week. Martin Luther once argued that schools were more important than even homeland security.:
“Even though only a single boy could thereby be trained to become a real Christian, we ought to give a hundred dollars to this cause for every dollar we would give to fight the Turk, even if they were breathing down our necks,” he wrote in a sermon promoting education.
The main reason Luther encouraged parents to make sure their children received an education was so that they could one day read the Bible for themselves and thereby develop a personal relationship with God. That’s a value that Methodists, Catholics, Baptists, and every Christian can appreciate.
Many people remember that St. John Lutheran Church in Charter Oak once had a Lutheran elementary school, but how many realize that they still have a Lutheran school?
St. Johns Lutheran’s preschool, “Noah’s Ark” has been blest by the loving care, and instruction of Mrs. Sandy Bramley since 1981. This Lutheran Schools Week, I want to recognize Sandy for her important work. Sandy has introduced generations of Charter Oak children to Jesus and the Bible. She has started them on their life’s journey of learning and working together. Thank you, Sandy and may God continue to bless the work He does through you.
Lynn Hoffman is someone who also played a major role in Noah’s Ark for many years. If you or one of your children have been a student of Sandy or Lynn over the years, why not send them a note and let them know what a difference they make and what they mean to you?
Thursday, February 26, 2004
Thursday, February 19, 2004
Not exactly a date movie
Lent was originally a period of forty days of fasting and repentance to prepare the Christian for the feast on the Easter Sunday. It was a time of reflection, self-examination, and spiritual redirection. Traditionally, churches baptized new converts on Holy Saturday, after six weeks of Bible classes instructing the new converts in the basics of the Christian faith.
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and lasts for forty days, not including the Sundays- because any Sunday is supposed to be a celebration of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday. It also doesn’t include St. Patrick’s Day – at least in the Catholic Church. That’s because it was a festival or feast day in the liturgical calendar.
It also doesn’t include my birthday, which is usually in Lent, but it DOES include YOUR birthday. Why? Because I SAY SO that’s why! Mu-Waha-Ha (maniacal laugh).
Okay, that wasn’t funny, it was just dumb, sorry.
Many of my students have been asking me if I’ve seen Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ yet. Actually, we spent several hours on Ash Wednesday (my birthday), in Omaha at the Creighton Medical Center with a developmental pediatrician who examined Grace and determined that if she indeed has dysarthria, it is part of a greater issue, either Oromotor dsypraxia/apraxia and/or motor dyscoordination. Whatever that all means. Hopefully she can qualify for speech therapy under our insurance, but an MRI would help our case. Of course, those run almost $2,000 and the insurance company will pay for 90% of it- once the deductible is paid, whine whine.
We were seriously thanking the Lord that she’s not in a wheel chair, she can think and see and hear and breath and smile. Many of the children we saw at the medical center are far worse off.
From how horrifically violent The Passion is supposed to be, we didn’t think we should take Grace. I’d hate to have my four year old frightened of Jesus. I’ve heard rumors that an elderly woman from the Dunlap area actually suffered a heart attack and died while watching that movie.
The wonderful thing about Gibson’s film (from the point of view of someone who hasn’t seen it yet) is that it moves people. It’s moved some to tears, (even macho guys) it’s moved them to think, and it moves them to discuss Jesus and religion with others.
Many of the kids in Dunlap certainly are. Naturally it’s a little frustrating for me to keep from violating their first amendment right of separation of church and state by not giving them all my opinions, but it’s thrilling to listen to them exercising their first amendment rights to freedom of religion and freedom of speech.
I imagine that Gibson hopes it will move people to reflection, self-examination, and spiritual redirection- I’m sure that’s why he released it at the beginning of Lent. My prayer is that it will move people to read the Passion and Easter stories for themselves in the Bible. And, thereby, hopefully, it will be moving them into their savior’s arms.
I read one critic who worried that Gibson failed to show any of Jesus’ eloquence, ethics, philosophy, personality and character by focusing on the brutality of His suffering and martyrdom. I’m not sure how any artist can portray a fair balance of law and gospel. Why shouldn’t we feel some shame and guilt for how much Jesus suffered for our eternal salvation? I think it was important for audiences to appreciate what WWII veterans went through on D-Day in Saving Private Ryan, and it’s imperative that audiences see what Jews suffered at the hands of the NAZIs in Shindler’s List.
But there should be a balance. Take Lent itself. It’s amazing how few Protestant Christians and un-churched people have even heard of the season. Some of us just take it for granted as another part of life. The Catholic tradition teaches that one’s faith is maintained by doing works of love and penance. Lutherans want to be very careful to never make the mistake of thinking that ANYTHING we can do could ever get us into Heaven, since our salvation was won by Jesus on the cross. Consequently, we often avoid the ideas of piety and penance as much as they can.
As an Irish Lutheran (Catholic grandparents), I can tell you that both Lutherans and Catholics are great at reflection, self-examination, (sometimes called “guilt”). Some of us are so practiced and conditioned that just a Scripture passage or a hymn can remind us that we didn’t deserve to be saved and Jesus didn’t deserve to die. However, perhaps the rest of society has become so jaded that we need a movie that dedicates 45 minutes just to the crucifixion itself.
As far as the spiritual redirection goes, my problem is that no mater how devout or dutiful I try to be, my Lenten resolutions look a lot like New Year’s resolutions. Self-centered attempts at self-improvement that eventually self destruct. For example: I drink WAY too much coffee. I intended to go cold turkey. I had such a headache the first night I thought I was suffering withdraws from cocaine or heroin. Bethany advised me to cut back to one or two cups a day, rather than a pot and a half or none at all. I took her advice. I hope God understands.
He probably will. I don’t know if during Lent we’re supposed to surrender stuff to show God how much we appreciate what Jesus did or if we’re supposed to sacrifice stuff so that we suffer a little and that helps us appreciate the suffering and sacrifices He made. Maybe we’re just supposed to reflect, self-examine, and spiritual redirect in any way that works. Since the victory is won and we know the end of the story, that Jesus rose again, maybe it’s not a matter of giving up anything.
We’re trying to read devotions together and I’m trying to be better about reading at least one chapter of the Bible a day. The goal is not to be better people or “holier” Christians. The goal is to learn more about God and what His plan is for our lives. I’m interested in seeing Passion of the Christ, but God won’t love me any less if I don’t. Besides, it’s not exactly a “date movie.” Who spends money on a babysitter unless you’re going out on a date?
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and lasts for forty days, not including the Sundays- because any Sunday is supposed to be a celebration of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday. It also doesn’t include St. Patrick’s Day – at least in the Catholic Church. That’s because it was a festival or feast day in the liturgical calendar.
It also doesn’t include my birthday, which is usually in Lent, but it DOES include YOUR birthday. Why? Because I SAY SO that’s why! Mu-Waha-Ha (maniacal laugh).
Okay, that wasn’t funny, it was just dumb, sorry.
Many of my students have been asking me if I’ve seen Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ yet. Actually, we spent several hours on Ash Wednesday (my birthday), in Omaha at the Creighton Medical Center with a developmental pediatrician who examined Grace and determined that if she indeed has dysarthria, it is part of a greater issue, either Oromotor dsypraxia/apraxia and/or motor dyscoordination. Whatever that all means. Hopefully she can qualify for speech therapy under our insurance, but an MRI would help our case. Of course, those run almost $2,000 and the insurance company will pay for 90% of it- once the deductible is paid, whine whine.
We were seriously thanking the Lord that she’s not in a wheel chair, she can think and see and hear and breath and smile. Many of the children we saw at the medical center are far worse off.
From how horrifically violent The Passion is supposed to be, we didn’t think we should take Grace. I’d hate to have my four year old frightened of Jesus. I’ve heard rumors that an elderly woman from the Dunlap area actually suffered a heart attack and died while watching that movie.
The wonderful thing about Gibson’s film (from the point of view of someone who hasn’t seen it yet) is that it moves people. It’s moved some to tears, (even macho guys) it’s moved them to think, and it moves them to discuss Jesus and religion with others.
Many of the kids in Dunlap certainly are. Naturally it’s a little frustrating for me to keep from violating their first amendment right of separation of church and state by not giving them all my opinions, but it’s thrilling to listen to them exercising their first amendment rights to freedom of religion and freedom of speech.
I imagine that Gibson hopes it will move people to reflection, self-examination, and spiritual redirection- I’m sure that’s why he released it at the beginning of Lent. My prayer is that it will move people to read the Passion and Easter stories for themselves in the Bible. And, thereby, hopefully, it will be moving them into their savior’s arms.
I read one critic who worried that Gibson failed to show any of Jesus’ eloquence, ethics, philosophy, personality and character by focusing on the brutality of His suffering and martyrdom. I’m not sure how any artist can portray a fair balance of law and gospel. Why shouldn’t we feel some shame and guilt for how much Jesus suffered for our eternal salvation? I think it was important for audiences to appreciate what WWII veterans went through on D-Day in Saving Private Ryan, and it’s imperative that audiences see what Jews suffered at the hands of the NAZIs in Shindler’s List.
But there should be a balance. Take Lent itself. It’s amazing how few Protestant Christians and un-churched people have even heard of the season. Some of us just take it for granted as another part of life. The Catholic tradition teaches that one’s faith is maintained by doing works of love and penance. Lutherans want to be very careful to never make the mistake of thinking that ANYTHING we can do could ever get us into Heaven, since our salvation was won by Jesus on the cross. Consequently, we often avoid the ideas of piety and penance as much as they can.
As an Irish Lutheran (Catholic grandparents), I can tell you that both Lutherans and Catholics are great at reflection, self-examination, (sometimes called “guilt”). Some of us are so practiced and conditioned that just a Scripture passage or a hymn can remind us that we didn’t deserve to be saved and Jesus didn’t deserve to die. However, perhaps the rest of society has become so jaded that we need a movie that dedicates 45 minutes just to the crucifixion itself.
As far as the spiritual redirection goes, my problem is that no mater how devout or dutiful I try to be, my Lenten resolutions look a lot like New Year’s resolutions. Self-centered attempts at self-improvement that eventually self destruct. For example: I drink WAY too much coffee. I intended to go cold turkey. I had such a headache the first night I thought I was suffering withdraws from cocaine or heroin. Bethany advised me to cut back to one or two cups a day, rather than a pot and a half or none at all. I took her advice. I hope God understands.
He probably will. I don’t know if during Lent we’re supposed to surrender stuff to show God how much we appreciate what Jesus did or if we’re supposed to sacrifice stuff so that we suffer a little and that helps us appreciate the suffering and sacrifices He made. Maybe we’re just supposed to reflect, self-examine, and spiritual redirect in any way that works. Since the victory is won and we know the end of the story, that Jesus rose again, maybe it’s not a matter of giving up anything.
We’re trying to read devotions together and I’m trying to be better about reading at least one chapter of the Bible a day. The goal is not to be better people or “holier” Christians. The goal is to learn more about God and what His plan is for our lives. I’m interested in seeing Passion of the Christ, but God won’t love me any less if I don’t. Besides, it’s not exactly a “date movie.” Who spends money on a babysitter unless you’re going out on a date?
Thursday, February 12, 2004
Wedge issues may play big role
It seems that the Democrats now have a nominee apparent. There’s already a “short-list” of possible running-mates. Former Florida Governor and Senator Bob Grahm is someone who could bring vindication for the 2000 election if he can deliver his home state.
Missouri Congressman Richard Gephart would appeal to old-style blue-collar Democrats.
I think that retired General Wesley Clark could bring broad appeal to moderate and socially conservative swing votes since he opposes gay marriage and abortion. He’d also supply extra oomf to the Kerry challenge to President Bush’s Defense policies.
There is even buzz that Kerry might consider New York Senator Hillary Clinton. Many people think she’d rather run for President on her own sometime in the next couple of decades.
The most likely choice, of course is North Carolina Senator John Edwards.
I think that a more exciting question is, what will the issues be in the fall? Well, it would be nice if they’d be things like civil rights, defense, environment and energy, health care, homeland security, foreign policy, education, deficits and balanced budgets. Fat chance.
Expect President Bush to bring out two big wedges and a red herring. Tax reform is a perennial Republican attention diverter (red herring), sure we need it, but to Bush it means more supply-side tax cuts for corporations and the top 2% of super wealthy Americans.
Then there are the “wedge” issues. Abortion and gay-marriage. They’re called wedges because they divide us. In stead of agreeing to disagree and live together or agreeing to hash it out until we come to a consensus or till one side compromises, wedge issues inflame passions and get people so worked up that they can’t think about anything else. Divide and conquer, just as good a political strategy as it is a military strategy.
Personally, I think that they’re both way to messy and way to personal for the Federal Government to mess with. You’d think that a true conservative who professes to less intrusive big-government would agree with me, but not Bush and the Religious Right. That’s ironic since these are both issues to truly be decided in the Bible, the Church and the heart, not with secular legislation.
You could call me socially conservative in so far as oppose both abortion and gay marriage, but the problem is, that much like the reconstruction of Iraq, I believe that the real battle is in people’s heart’s and minds.
I admit it, it pains and embarrasses me that Democrats keep a pro-choice plank in their party platform. The problem, as a matter of fact, is with Roe v. Wade. I think that the Supreme Court was really stretching to interpret the Constitution to include a right to abortion. Even is you squeeze the 4th, 9th, and 14th Amendments enough to say that the Constitution protects a “right to privacy,” what does that have to do with a human being, the baby? My point is, this is an issue for the Sates or Congress to hash out, not for the Court to have decided.
If only it was as simple as it should be. There are complications like rape, incest, and mortality of the mother. There are theological, ethical, and biological disagreements about the definition of a human life and when exactly it begins. Unfortunately, these are issues that there may never be concessions on. Congress and the FCC can’t even settle on a clear definition for decency and indecency on TV and radio, how can we hope that we’ll all agree on abortion as a nation?
It may be about to get worse. The newest issue- that could well become a wedge issue is human cloning. Last week South Korean scientists announced that they had successfully cloned a human being. They say that it is for harvesting stem cells for research and tissue production-not for reproduction.
There’s the wedge. Devout Mormon, Republican Senator Orin Hatch of Utah is a staunch opponent of abortion, but he is an adamant proponent of stem-cell research. Stem cells, taken from human embryos (babies) are thought to hold the keys to treating or curing such debilitating diseases as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
Some people believe that cloning for the sake of producing stem cells should be permitted for the sake of genetic therapy, organ replacement, and research. Of course the embryos created are terminated so that they don’t go on to develop into full grown adults. So the question is, is that a form of abortion? Are clones human? Are they human lives? Do they have souls? Do they have rights?
I may not think that Abortion is a privacy issue, but don’t think that privacy won’t also be an issue between cell phones, e-mail, surveillance cameras, and National security. Big brother is here and we may need a Constitutional amendment providing the right to privacy before amendments on abortion or gay marriage get fought about.
Is gay marriage wrong? I for one can’t get passed that the Bible calls homosexuality a sin, but so is drunkenness and gluttony. Jesus said that if you so much as look at a woman lustfully, you’ve committed adultery. In His time that meant you were sentenced to being stoned to death. He said that if you hate someone it’s the same as committing murder. So being gay is wrong, but so is hating gays.
We’re stuck aren’t we? That’s why wedge issues are so effective in forcing would be moderates and progressives over the fence to the radically conservative side. It’s more comfortable.
The 14th Amendment does promise “equal protection under the law.” Does that mean that a monogamous gay partner should be allowed to visit their partner in the hospital or be covered by their partner’s insurance? I don’t know for sure, but it does make us straights look stupid for trying so hard to protect the sanctity of marriage when heterosexual celeb-bratt-ties have their Vegas marriages annulled after 24 hour because they were drunk.
One thing for sure, this doesn’t seem to be an issue that’s going to fade away.
Then, there’s still war. Americans die every day in Iraq. Iraq had nothing to do with Al Queda and there’s no proof of any weapons of mass destruction. Former Bush administration officials say that he talked about invading Iraq as soon as he got into office and began implementing plans to do so within a week of September 11.
Then there is the mother-of-all-wedge-issues rearing its ugly head again. In 1971 a Viet Nam veteran, with Silver and Bronze Stars and three Purple Hearts sat before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to oppose the Vietnam War and asked the Senators something very controversial.
Commander John Kerry asked them, “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?”
No military man or woman’s service to their country should ever be devalued, their lives and sacrifice is truly honorable and sacred- and I don’t think that Commander Kerry meant to say they died in vain. I believe that he questioned the policies and decisions of Presidents Johnson (a Democrat) and Nixon (a Republican) just as people today question Bush’s policy of “preemptive unilateralist.”
Carter served in the cold war on the first nuclear submarine. Ronald Reagan played a soldier frequently in Hollywood Movies. Bush Sr. served in WWII. Clinton got a deferment for college because he was accepted to be a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in England (like West Point grad Wes Clark), of course he took a lot of heat from Republicans because he participated in protests against Vietnam.
Bush Jr. is thought to have joined the Air National Guard to avoid being drafted and sent to Vietnam, where men like Bob Kerry, John McCain, and John Kerry suffered and sacrificed.
I have two uncles who are great friends, but Vietnam is something they both choose not to talk about. One was a medic, another fled to Canada. Almost forty years later, it’s a wedge issue that still divides families, and divides America.
What we must learn to do is to agree to disagree. Wedge issues will always divide us, but they need not destroy us. Like it or not, compromise is an integral part of our democracy. As foul as they often are to endure unresolved or un-vanquished, these differences should be the price we pay for our unity and freedom, not the levers we use to wrest power from our political opponents.
Missouri Congressman Richard Gephart would appeal to old-style blue-collar Democrats.
I think that retired General Wesley Clark could bring broad appeal to moderate and socially conservative swing votes since he opposes gay marriage and abortion. He’d also supply extra oomf to the Kerry challenge to President Bush’s Defense policies.
There is even buzz that Kerry might consider New York Senator Hillary Clinton. Many people think she’d rather run for President on her own sometime in the next couple of decades.
The most likely choice, of course is North Carolina Senator John Edwards.
I think that a more exciting question is, what will the issues be in the fall? Well, it would be nice if they’d be things like civil rights, defense, environment and energy, health care, homeland security, foreign policy, education, deficits and balanced budgets. Fat chance.
Expect President Bush to bring out two big wedges and a red herring. Tax reform is a perennial Republican attention diverter (red herring), sure we need it, but to Bush it means more supply-side tax cuts for corporations and the top 2% of super wealthy Americans.
Then there are the “wedge” issues. Abortion and gay-marriage. They’re called wedges because they divide us. In stead of agreeing to disagree and live together or agreeing to hash it out until we come to a consensus or till one side compromises, wedge issues inflame passions and get people so worked up that they can’t think about anything else. Divide and conquer, just as good a political strategy as it is a military strategy.
Personally, I think that they’re both way to messy and way to personal for the Federal Government to mess with. You’d think that a true conservative who professes to less intrusive big-government would agree with me, but not Bush and the Religious Right. That’s ironic since these are both issues to truly be decided in the Bible, the Church and the heart, not with secular legislation.
You could call me socially conservative in so far as oppose both abortion and gay marriage, but the problem is, that much like the reconstruction of Iraq, I believe that the real battle is in people’s heart’s and minds.
I admit it, it pains and embarrasses me that Democrats keep a pro-choice plank in their party platform. The problem, as a matter of fact, is with Roe v. Wade. I think that the Supreme Court was really stretching to interpret the Constitution to include a right to abortion. Even is you squeeze the 4th, 9th, and 14th Amendments enough to say that the Constitution protects a “right to privacy,” what does that have to do with a human being, the baby? My point is, this is an issue for the Sates or Congress to hash out, not for the Court to have decided.
If only it was as simple as it should be. There are complications like rape, incest, and mortality of the mother. There are theological, ethical, and biological disagreements about the definition of a human life and when exactly it begins. Unfortunately, these are issues that there may never be concessions on. Congress and the FCC can’t even settle on a clear definition for decency and indecency on TV and radio, how can we hope that we’ll all agree on abortion as a nation?
It may be about to get worse. The newest issue- that could well become a wedge issue is human cloning. Last week South Korean scientists announced that they had successfully cloned a human being. They say that it is for harvesting stem cells for research and tissue production-not for reproduction.
There’s the wedge. Devout Mormon, Republican Senator Orin Hatch of Utah is a staunch opponent of abortion, but he is an adamant proponent of stem-cell research. Stem cells, taken from human embryos (babies) are thought to hold the keys to treating or curing such debilitating diseases as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
Some people believe that cloning for the sake of producing stem cells should be permitted for the sake of genetic therapy, organ replacement, and research. Of course the embryos created are terminated so that they don’t go on to develop into full grown adults. So the question is, is that a form of abortion? Are clones human? Are they human lives? Do they have souls? Do they have rights?
I may not think that Abortion is a privacy issue, but don’t think that privacy won’t also be an issue between cell phones, e-mail, surveillance cameras, and National security. Big brother is here and we may need a Constitutional amendment providing the right to privacy before amendments on abortion or gay marriage get fought about.
Is gay marriage wrong? I for one can’t get passed that the Bible calls homosexuality a sin, but so is drunkenness and gluttony. Jesus said that if you so much as look at a woman lustfully, you’ve committed adultery. In His time that meant you were sentenced to being stoned to death. He said that if you hate someone it’s the same as committing murder. So being gay is wrong, but so is hating gays.
We’re stuck aren’t we? That’s why wedge issues are so effective in forcing would be moderates and progressives over the fence to the radically conservative side. It’s more comfortable.
The 14th Amendment does promise “equal protection under the law.” Does that mean that a monogamous gay partner should be allowed to visit their partner in the hospital or be covered by their partner’s insurance? I don’t know for sure, but it does make us straights look stupid for trying so hard to protect the sanctity of marriage when heterosexual celeb-bratt-ties have their Vegas marriages annulled after 24 hour because they were drunk.
One thing for sure, this doesn’t seem to be an issue that’s going to fade away.
Then, there’s still war. Americans die every day in Iraq. Iraq had nothing to do with Al Queda and there’s no proof of any weapons of mass destruction. Former Bush administration officials say that he talked about invading Iraq as soon as he got into office and began implementing plans to do so within a week of September 11.
Then there is the mother-of-all-wedge-issues rearing its ugly head again. In 1971 a Viet Nam veteran, with Silver and Bronze Stars and three Purple Hearts sat before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to oppose the Vietnam War and asked the Senators something very controversial.
Commander John Kerry asked them, “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?”
No military man or woman’s service to their country should ever be devalued, their lives and sacrifice is truly honorable and sacred- and I don’t think that Commander Kerry meant to say they died in vain. I believe that he questioned the policies and decisions of Presidents Johnson (a Democrat) and Nixon (a Republican) just as people today question Bush’s policy of “preemptive unilateralist.”
Carter served in the cold war on the first nuclear submarine. Ronald Reagan played a soldier frequently in Hollywood Movies. Bush Sr. served in WWII. Clinton got a deferment for college because he was accepted to be a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in England (like West Point grad Wes Clark), of course he took a lot of heat from Republicans because he participated in protests against Vietnam.
Bush Jr. is thought to have joined the Air National Guard to avoid being drafted and sent to Vietnam, where men like Bob Kerry, John McCain, and John Kerry suffered and sacrificed.
I have two uncles who are great friends, but Vietnam is something they both choose not to talk about. One was a medic, another fled to Canada. Almost forty years later, it’s a wedge issue that still divides families, and divides America.
What we must learn to do is to agree to disagree. Wedge issues will always divide us, but they need not destroy us. Like it or not, compromise is an integral part of our democracy. As foul as they often are to endure unresolved or un-vanquished, these differences should be the price we pay for our unity and freedom, not the levers we use to wrest power from our political opponents.
Thursday, February 05, 2004
Presidential race narrowing
Here’s what I see happening. Quote me or mark my words or whatever you want to do- the very fact that I’m going on record with this will probably jinx it so it won’t happen anyway:
Mass. Sen. John Kerry sews up the Democratic nomination long before the convention and chooses N.C. Sen. John Edwards as his running mate. Since Edward’s is young and handsome, like Dan Quayle and a Protestant and a Southerner like LBJ, he wins over the young, the South, and the Christian non-conservatives (Black) swing voters that a Catholic from Boston like Kerry needs to defeat President Bush and Vice President Dick “Halaberton/Heart trouble” Cheney in November.
A couple of weeks ago, on February 2, Kerry won 5 of the 7 state primaries, solidifying his lead in a rapidly dwindling field of Democratic candidates. It is important to point out that at the time I write this column, he only has 244 delegates at the convention so far. He needs at least 2,161 to guarantee the nomination. 1,917 is still a long way to go.
Most of us have written of Vermont Gov. Howard Dean since he screamed after the Iowa Caucuses, but he’s got 121 delegates and Edwards has 102. General Wesley Clark only has 79.
If any of these guys can hang in there till spring, maybe they can bring enough leverage to make sure that their voice is at least hear at the convention. That’s what Rev. Al Sharpton claims to be trying to do, although most analysts don’t expect he’ll have much influence. Right now he has a whole five delegates, and that’s after coming in third in South Carolina- his big “double digits win.” That means he got 10 %.
Personally, I’d like to see Dean be able to do that. He successfully activated the party’s progressive base without flying as far to left field as Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich. For whatever else anyone thinks of Dean, he is a thinker. He wrote a pamphlet called “Common Sense for the 21st Century,” an homage to Thomas Paine’s Revolutionary War propaganda, that lays out pretty clearly and simply his ideas about who America is, where we came from, and how to get back to fundamental ideas of justice, fairness, progress, world leadership, self-government, and community.
Okay, okay, I’ll give up, I know he’s out. A Time/CNN poll has Bush beating Dean 52% to 45%. I just wish that fixing foreign policy, helping education and a balanced budget were as important to other Democrats as “electability.” Are you happy? I’ll stop betting on a dead horse. But my point is, I think Dean got Kerry and Edwards to talk about the war and the deficit and that’s important.
I predict that Dean will end up hosting his own talk show somewhere and General Clark will be offered either Secretary of State or Defense. Sharpton will go back to neighborhood radical race politics in New York City or obscurity.
Dean’s pinning a lot of hopes on Michigan and Wisconsin this week and next, but the real test will be March 2, when 10 more states hold their primary on what used to be called “Super Tuesday,” including California, Georgia, New York, and Kerry’s home state of Massachusetts. By the time American Samoa has their primary on March 8, I think it will be all over.
That same Time/CNN poll has Kerry beating Bush 53% to 46% or Edwards beating Bush 49% to 48%- of course if that would happen, there’d be all this trouble over ballots somewhere like Florida, where Bush’s brother is governor and it would get decided in the Supreme court by justices appointed by Bush’s father who go duck hunting with Cheney on the weekends.
Of course, if the Army gets a hold of Osama Bin Laden in the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan this spring or summer like the CIA thinks they might, all bets are off. Bush will be every body’s hero again and people will be talking about Kerry the way they talk about Dean now.
Mind you, I hope they get him tomorrow, but the massive debt and deficits that Bush has been running may do more harm than terrorism over the next fifty years. When did “conservatives” give up on fiscal responsibility? When I grew up I thought that’s what it meant to be a Republican, but since Reagan and Bush Sr. it seems like all they like to do is tax-and spend.
They accuse Democrats of being tax-and-spend liberals, but it’s who you tax and what you spend it on. I see Bush taxing working people and spending it on Halaberton and Enron.
Kerry and Bush both went to Yale, and both pledged to the infamous, secretive and Masonic “Skull and Bones” fraternity, but I’ll take the old fashioned Boston noblesse oblige over a "blind man in a roomful of deaf people" any day. (Yes I know Dean went to Yale too, what are ya gonna do?)
Disclaimer: These views were my own and do not necessarily represent those of other Democrats, this NEWSpaper, or Lyon Publishing- just thought I'd throw that at ya to cover my tushie.
Mass. Sen. John Kerry sews up the Democratic nomination long before the convention and chooses N.C. Sen. John Edwards as his running mate. Since Edward’s is young and handsome, like Dan Quayle and a Protestant and a Southerner like LBJ, he wins over the young, the South, and the Christian non-conservatives (Black) swing voters that a Catholic from Boston like Kerry needs to defeat President Bush and Vice President Dick “Halaberton/Heart trouble” Cheney in November.
A couple of weeks ago, on February 2, Kerry won 5 of the 7 state primaries, solidifying his lead in a rapidly dwindling field of Democratic candidates. It is important to point out that at the time I write this column, he only has 244 delegates at the convention so far. He needs at least 2,161 to guarantee the nomination. 1,917 is still a long way to go.
Most of us have written of Vermont Gov. Howard Dean since he screamed after the Iowa Caucuses, but he’s got 121 delegates and Edwards has 102. General Wesley Clark only has 79.
If any of these guys can hang in there till spring, maybe they can bring enough leverage to make sure that their voice is at least hear at the convention. That’s what Rev. Al Sharpton claims to be trying to do, although most analysts don’t expect he’ll have much influence. Right now he has a whole five delegates, and that’s after coming in third in South Carolina- his big “double digits win.” That means he got 10 %.
Personally, I’d like to see Dean be able to do that. He successfully activated the party’s progressive base without flying as far to left field as Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich. For whatever else anyone thinks of Dean, he is a thinker. He wrote a pamphlet called “Common Sense for the 21st Century,” an homage to Thomas Paine’s Revolutionary War propaganda, that lays out pretty clearly and simply his ideas about who America is, where we came from, and how to get back to fundamental ideas of justice, fairness, progress, world leadership, self-government, and community.
Okay, okay, I’ll give up, I know he’s out. A Time/CNN poll has Bush beating Dean 52% to 45%. I just wish that fixing foreign policy, helping education and a balanced budget were as important to other Democrats as “electability.” Are you happy? I’ll stop betting on a dead horse. But my point is, I think Dean got Kerry and Edwards to talk about the war and the deficit and that’s important.
I predict that Dean will end up hosting his own talk show somewhere and General Clark will be offered either Secretary of State or Defense. Sharpton will go back to neighborhood radical race politics in New York City or obscurity.
Dean’s pinning a lot of hopes on Michigan and Wisconsin this week and next, but the real test will be March 2, when 10 more states hold their primary on what used to be called “Super Tuesday,” including California, Georgia, New York, and Kerry’s home state of Massachusetts. By the time American Samoa has their primary on March 8, I think it will be all over.
That same Time/CNN poll has Kerry beating Bush 53% to 46% or Edwards beating Bush 49% to 48%- of course if that would happen, there’d be all this trouble over ballots somewhere like Florida, where Bush’s brother is governor and it would get decided in the Supreme court by justices appointed by Bush’s father who go duck hunting with Cheney on the weekends.
Of course, if the Army gets a hold of Osama Bin Laden in the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan this spring or summer like the CIA thinks they might, all bets are off. Bush will be every body’s hero again and people will be talking about Kerry the way they talk about Dean now.
Mind you, I hope they get him tomorrow, but the massive debt and deficits that Bush has been running may do more harm than terrorism over the next fifty years. When did “conservatives” give up on fiscal responsibility? When I grew up I thought that’s what it meant to be a Republican, but since Reagan and Bush Sr. it seems like all they like to do is tax-and spend.
They accuse Democrats of being tax-and-spend liberals, but it’s who you tax and what you spend it on. I see Bush taxing working people and spending it on Halaberton and Enron.
Kerry and Bush both went to Yale, and both pledged to the infamous, secretive and Masonic “Skull and Bones” fraternity, but I’ll take the old fashioned Boston noblesse oblige over a "blind man in a roomful of deaf people" any day. (Yes I know Dean went to Yale too, what are ya gonna do?)
Disclaimer: These views were my own and do not necessarily represent those of other Democrats, this NEWSpaper, or Lyon Publishing- just thought I'd throw that at ya to cover my tushie.
Thursday, January 29, 2004
Milestones in Language development & aquisition:
Or “more kids say the darndest things”
“No! No Gwacie! Gimme it baaack!” Ellen, the two year old protested. Struggling to get the toy, comb, condiment, whatever it was back from her four year old sister Grace at the dinner table. I don’t really remember what it was they were fighting over, because my wife Bethany and I were so excited.
“Yeah Ellie! You got your sister’s name right!!!” we cheered and clapped. If you remember from a few columns back, Ellen thinks that Garce’s name is “Hewlwn.” We’ve been working to correct this for some time.
The parenting books all say you’re supposed to reward positive behavior with such praise. We’ve applauded Ellie’s proper use of “the big girl potty” so much this way that now when we flush the toilet she claps for us, as it “Yeah Daddy (or Mommy), you wen powddy by yosewf!”
The victory didn’t last long. We decided to play a game of point-to-the-family-member-and-ask-their name. It didn’t go all that well.
Parent: Points to me, “What’s HIS name?”
Ellen: “Daddy!”
Parent: “Yeah!!! great job,” points to Bethany, “What’s HER name?”
Ellen: “Mommy!”
Parent: “Hurrah! Wonderful, you’re so smart,” points to older sister, “What’s HER name?”
Ellen: “GwHelwen!”
Parent: “Noo-o, no, sweety, her name is ‘Gracie.’ GRAY-SEE. Sigh.” In desperation, points to Ellen herself, “Okay, then what’s YOUR name?”
Ellen: “ummmmm… I ME!”
Well, at least she’s mastered the use of personal pronouns. She’s starting to repeat lots of what we say, that’s been a lot of fun. We missed many of those typical toddler benchmarks with Grace. Those of you who know her, know that she’s pretty hard to understand much of the time. At the risk of embarrassing her years from now or “airing my dirty laundry in the press,” I’d like to try to explain it to you.
Grace suffers from what is called Dysarthria. Dysarthria is a speech disorder that is due to a weakness or in-coordination of the speech muscles. Speech is slow, weak, imprecise or uncoordinated. It can affect both children and adults. "Childhood dysarthria" can often be a symptom of a disease, such as cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, or Bell’s palsy. Grace does not have any of these.
By the way none of those are forms of mental retardation. I say this because many of us might mistake them for forms of autism, Down’s syndrome or severe mental or learning disabilities. They’re muscle, nerve, or speech problems, not problems with intelligence or learning abilities.
A child once asked me if Grace was “retarded.” I held it together and didn’t cry or lash out in anger, instead I did my best to explain what Dysarthria is, but I took a long walk alone to wrestle with God when I was done.
Someone recently asked if we planned to hold Grace back from kindergarten since she was so behind. We were dumbfounded because as far as we or her teachers and doctors can tell, she’s right where she needs to be. Recognizes her name, knows her colors, counts to twenty, gets dressed by herself, starts the VCR by herself… We’re just getting stated on zipping up her coat though.
Besides, there are more forms of intelligence than math or language. Harvard Education Professor Howard Gardener teaches that there are multiple forms of intelligences.
You know how they say that if you lose one of your senses, you’re others become more acute? Like how blind people have really good hearing? Well, I think Grace has compensated for some of her weaknesses with other strengths. I know I’m biased as an Art teacher, but I think she’s got spatial intelligence ("picture smart"). Grace loves to paint and cut things out. She experiments with neutral colors and cuts out “hair-styles” and beards and hats for people.
There’s bodily-kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart"), not Grace’s area, but that would be consistent with Dysarthria since it has to do with muscle and nerve development. This would be Ellen’s area. This chick loves to jump off of high furniture and land on her feet and she loves to throw balls. Although, in Grace’s imagination, she’s come up with her own basketball league- the Dinosaur league. The boys are the “Sharp-tooths” and the girls are the “little foots.” You have to see the cartoon movie “Land before Time.”
There’s also musical intelligence ("music smart") Grace loves to sing and dance, but obviously the speech and coordination things hamper this.
There’s Intra-personal intelligence ("self smart") too many of us think we have this but don’t. And of course there’s interpersonal intelligence ("people smart"). I’d like to think Grace has this, she’s usually pretty sensitive and compassionate and a fairly decent judge of character.
In both adults and children, Dysarthria can result from head injury or stroke. As far as we can tell, Grace’s Dysarthria is a result of trauma in the womb.
She had her umbilical chord wrapped around her neck, making matters worse, she got stuck in the birth canal during labor. Unfortunately the policy of the HMO in California where she was delivered was to encourage natural child-birth as much as possible and to discourage Caesarian sections whenever possible.
Of course, we haven’t been able to convince our insurance company that this is what caused it, and we seem can’t get ample proof from the HMO to satisfy them. They’re policy is that they’ll pay to get help if it was caused by trauma, but not if it’s a “pre-existing condition/congenital condition.” But, in theory, she’ll grow out of it and eventually her speech will improve at least somewhat. And so far, she’s made friends easily and hasn’t had to endure any cruel teasing from her classmates. Of course, she might not tell us if she had, we might not understand, literally.
If you’d like to learn more about Dysarthria you can visit these websites, http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/dysarthria.htm, http://home.ica.net/~fred/anch10-1.htm
I know this column has gotten long again but I feel bad that it’s also gotten pretty somber, so I’d like to leave you with a couple more Ellie stories. One Sunday we sat in the balcony at church, “Grammy Mawdge,” is an organist. We had the hardest time convincing Ellie that there weren’t “Monstaws” living behind the organ pipes.
Last Sunday Ellen noticed the stained glass window in the back of Jesus praying at Gesthemane.
“He sad, he cwying,” Ellie noticed.
“Yes, He is, why do you think He’s sad?” I asked her.
“He want His mommy,” she explained.
“No! No Gwacie! Gimme it baaack!” Ellen, the two year old protested. Struggling to get the toy, comb, condiment, whatever it was back from her four year old sister Grace at the dinner table. I don’t really remember what it was they were fighting over, because my wife Bethany and I were so excited.
“Yeah Ellie! You got your sister’s name right!!!” we cheered and clapped. If you remember from a few columns back, Ellen thinks that Garce’s name is “Hewlwn.” We’ve been working to correct this for some time.
The parenting books all say you’re supposed to reward positive behavior with such praise. We’ve applauded Ellie’s proper use of “the big girl potty” so much this way that now when we flush the toilet she claps for us, as it “Yeah Daddy (or Mommy), you wen powddy by yosewf!”
The victory didn’t last long. We decided to play a game of point-to-the-family-member-and-ask-their name. It didn’t go all that well.
Parent: Points to me, “What’s HIS name?”
Ellen: “Daddy!”
Parent: “Yeah!!! great job,” points to Bethany, “What’s HER name?”
Ellen: “Mommy!”
Parent: “Hurrah! Wonderful, you’re so smart,” points to older sister, “What’s HER name?”
Ellen: “GwHelwen!”
Parent: “Noo-o, no, sweety, her name is ‘Gracie.’ GRAY-SEE. Sigh.” In desperation, points to Ellen herself, “Okay, then what’s YOUR name?”
Ellen: “ummmmm… I ME!”
Well, at least she’s mastered the use of personal pronouns. She’s starting to repeat lots of what we say, that’s been a lot of fun. We missed many of those typical toddler benchmarks with Grace. Those of you who know her, know that she’s pretty hard to understand much of the time. At the risk of embarrassing her years from now or “airing my dirty laundry in the press,” I’d like to try to explain it to you.
Grace suffers from what is called Dysarthria. Dysarthria is a speech disorder that is due to a weakness or in-coordination of the speech muscles. Speech is slow, weak, imprecise or uncoordinated. It can affect both children and adults. "Childhood dysarthria" can often be a symptom of a disease, such as cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, or Bell’s palsy. Grace does not have any of these.
By the way none of those are forms of mental retardation. I say this because many of us might mistake them for forms of autism, Down’s syndrome or severe mental or learning disabilities. They’re muscle, nerve, or speech problems, not problems with intelligence or learning abilities.
A child once asked me if Grace was “retarded.” I held it together and didn’t cry or lash out in anger, instead I did my best to explain what Dysarthria is, but I took a long walk alone to wrestle with God when I was done.
Someone recently asked if we planned to hold Grace back from kindergarten since she was so behind. We were dumbfounded because as far as we or her teachers and doctors can tell, she’s right where she needs to be. Recognizes her name, knows her colors, counts to twenty, gets dressed by herself, starts the VCR by herself… We’re just getting stated on zipping up her coat though.
Besides, there are more forms of intelligence than math or language. Harvard Education Professor Howard Gardener teaches that there are multiple forms of intelligences.
You know how they say that if you lose one of your senses, you’re others become more acute? Like how blind people have really good hearing? Well, I think Grace has compensated for some of her weaknesses with other strengths. I know I’m biased as an Art teacher, but I think she’s got spatial intelligence ("picture smart"). Grace loves to paint and cut things out. She experiments with neutral colors and cuts out “hair-styles” and beards and hats for people.
There’s bodily-kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart"), not Grace’s area, but that would be consistent with Dysarthria since it has to do with muscle and nerve development. This would be Ellen’s area. This chick loves to jump off of high furniture and land on her feet and she loves to throw balls. Although, in Grace’s imagination, she’s come up with her own basketball league- the Dinosaur league. The boys are the “Sharp-tooths” and the girls are the “little foots.” You have to see the cartoon movie “Land before Time.”
There’s also musical intelligence ("music smart") Grace loves to sing and dance, but obviously the speech and coordination things hamper this.
There’s Intra-personal intelligence ("self smart") too many of us think we have this but don’t. And of course there’s interpersonal intelligence ("people smart"). I’d like to think Grace has this, she’s usually pretty sensitive and compassionate and a fairly decent judge of character.
In both adults and children, Dysarthria can result from head injury or stroke. As far as we can tell, Grace’s Dysarthria is a result of trauma in the womb.
She had her umbilical chord wrapped around her neck, making matters worse, she got stuck in the birth canal during labor. Unfortunately the policy of the HMO in California where she was delivered was to encourage natural child-birth as much as possible and to discourage Caesarian sections whenever possible.
Of course, we haven’t been able to convince our insurance company that this is what caused it, and we seem can’t get ample proof from the HMO to satisfy them. They’re policy is that they’ll pay to get help if it was caused by trauma, but not if it’s a “pre-existing condition/congenital condition.” But, in theory, she’ll grow out of it and eventually her speech will improve at least somewhat. And so far, she’s made friends easily and hasn’t had to endure any cruel teasing from her classmates. Of course, she might not tell us if she had, we might not understand, literally.
If you’d like to learn more about Dysarthria you can visit these websites, http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/dysarthria.htm, http://home.ica.net/~fred/anch10-1.htm
I know this column has gotten long again but I feel bad that it’s also gotten pretty somber, so I’d like to leave you with a couple more Ellie stories. One Sunday we sat in the balcony at church, “Grammy Mawdge,” is an organist. We had the hardest time convincing Ellie that there weren’t “Monstaws” living behind the organ pipes.
Last Sunday Ellen noticed the stained glass window in the back of Jesus praying at Gesthemane.
“He sad, he cwying,” Ellie noticed.
“Yes, He is, why do you think He’s sad?” I asked her.
“He want His mommy,” she explained.
Thursday, January 22, 2004
Looking for Stability
My own personal “9/11” is “431.” It’s nothing like “420.”
“420” is a number used by teenagers. To some it refers to 4:20 pm, the supposed average time most high school marijuana users light up. For others it represents April 20th, Adolph Hitler’s birthday. “420” reminds still others of the Columbine High School Massacre which occurred on April 20, 1999.
“431” is a time. It’s the time in the morning when I most often wake up when I’m suffering from insomnia.
At 4:31 A.M., Pacific Standard Time, on Monday, January 17, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the densely populated San Fernando Valley, in northern Los Angeles. Thousands of aftershocks, many in the magnitude 4.0 to 5.0 range, rocked the valley during the next few weeks.
Initially they CALLED it a 6.5, then 6.7. There were rumors floating around L.A. in 1994 that it was closer to a 7.2, but that Cal Tech stuck with 6.8 because many insurance companies wouldn’t have to pay for any damages produced by any earthquake of a 7.0 magnitude or higher.
Anything above a 7 is considered an “act of God.” Believe me, if you’ve ever experienced an earthquake above a 5.0, you’d call it an “act of God.”
It was our first year out of college. We were teaching at L.A. Lutheran Jr/Sr High School. Actually, I spent the mornings at Trinity middle school in Reseda and spent my lunch hours on the freeway to get to LHS in the north Valley for the afternoon. First year teaching is hard for anyone. We lived in a tiny one-bedroom in a poor suburb called Sylmar. 600 sq feet for $660 per month.
My in-laws, Marge and Allan Neddermeyer were visiting us during the three-day MLKjr weekend.
They were supposed to fly home Monday. Saturday night there had been a small earthquake out in the ocean, off the coast from Malibu. It had been unseasonably warm, in the eighties. Natives called it “earthquake weather,” but that meant nothing to us.
We had purchased a new couch, but the Salvation Army wasn’t making pick ups on Sunday, so we had to store our old sofa (a pull out bed) in the garage. We propped it up against the wall next to our car. “Is it sturdy enough? Oh yeah, the only thing that would make that thing fall would be an earth quake.” Prophetic, we never did gat that dent out of the hood, but many or our neighbors had the top two stories of apartments bury the cars in their first floor garages!
Mom and Dad were our guests, so they got the bedroom. Doors on either side of the bathroom separated us from them in the living room. We were on an air mattress , when we made the bed we chose to sleep with our feet toward the entertainment system. That was a good decision, since the TV would’ve landed on our heads if we’d slept the other way.
At 4:31 we were rudely awakened by the quake. The air mattress felt like a pontoon raft in white water rapids shooting down the Colorado river in the Grand Canyon. Experts say that it didn’t last more than 18-30 seconds but it felt like several minutes. Bethany later teased me because I was reciting the Lord’s Prayer over and over as fast as I could. I’ve done that on really scary roller coasters too while my knuckles turn white.
Pitch black since all power was out. Battery powered car and home alarms were screaming, neighbors and their children crying and screaming, your body filled with adrenaline just like it is right after a car accident…you can see that this would be the one situation where it would not be so irrational to imagine that this was the end of the world.
Our front door was ajar, but jammed so that it wouldn’t open much wider. All of the bathroom drawers were out of the vanity. Since doors on both sides of the bathroom opened in, they were jammed and we were separated from our parents in the bedroom on the other side. The refrigerator was out of its hole and leaning against the kitchen counter. The microwave had been thrown 8 or 10 feet across the kitchen.
When we walked across the room glass crunched under our bare feet. If it weren’t covered by a layer of books that fell off the shelves, our feet would’ve surely been bloody.
When the first aftershock came, we felt like we were on a rope bridge, or in a small boat being tossed around on a stormy sea, when all four of us had gotten Marge and Allan out of the bedroom, we got out of the apartment. The pool in the center courtyard was a little more than half empty. Dozens of neighbors gathered together on the curb of the street outside the apartment complex. All of us in our underwear, most without shoes. It’s amazing how cold it is at 5 o’clock in the morning in January, even in Southern California! Some Good Samaritans with shoes and flash lights ventured back inside to retrieve blackest and robes for others. When an aftershock would hit, it felt as if the asphalt were waving like a billowing blanket on a clothesline in the breeze. It’s a surreal feeling.
Dozens of strangers sitting on the curb the curb together. Several were smoking cigarettes to try to settle their nerves even though we could all smell the natural gas escaping from severed gas lines. We heard siren after siren and helicopter after helicopter, but no police or ambulance ever stopped at our complex. That meant that this had to be huge. Was this the legendary “big one?” How big was it? What was left of L.A.? Was it WWIII? The end of the world? Some kind of disaster movie? A trailer park across the freeway from our complex blazed with fires. This and the dawn were the only lights we had.
Official reports put the death toll around 57, including a janitor who was smashed by the parking garage at the Northridge Mall. More than 1,500 people were seriously injured. 9,000 homes and businesses were still without electricity for days afterward. 20,000 without gas; and over 48,500 had little or no water.
The official reports say that nearly 12,500 structures were damaged, leaving thousands temporarily homeless. 6% of the over 66 thousand buildings inspected were severely damaged (“red tagged”) and 17% were moderately damaged (“yellow tagged”).
The strange thing about an earthquake is that it fishers out like the spider-web cracks in your windshield when it’s hit by a pebble. So our apartment was damaged beyond repair, but not destroyed, another building in our complex was damaged first, the top floors caved in on the lowest level. One neighbor had just pulled out of his garage at 4:30 on his way to National Guard duty. He said that he hit his remote for his garage door to come down, but instead the entire building came down! Yet less than 2 miles away we had a fellow teacher who had only one pitcher fall off of her kitchen counter. She was a native and wasn’t even awakened by the quake.
Our apartment was red tagged. We were homeless. Later that morning gathered clothes and photo albums into our car and somehow made it to a cousin’s house a couple of hours south. There we sat dazed watching their CNN all day, seeing lines of people buying bottled water at grocery stores and horror stories about deaths and desperate searches for survivors.
Marge and Allan stayed another week or two to help us find a new apartment and salvage the rest of our belongings. The airline graciously honored their passes. Parents and kids sometimes become friends when the kids become adults, but few people have a bond like those of us who’ve been through a crisis together.
And like a soldier, a decade later, I still struggle with post traumatic stress disorder. More stressed, irritable, depressed and sleepless.
According to Reuters News Service, at 5:26 AM on 26 December 2003, an earthquake shook a large area of Iran. The epicenter of the devastating earthquake is located a few miles South West of a city called Bam. I bet the survivors thought that it lived up to its name that morning.
Iranian scientists revised the magnitude up to 6.8, from a previous estimate of 6.3 on the Richter scale. Yeah, try over 7.0, guys. Some Iranian officials have estimated their death toll at nearly 50,000.
Los Angeles architects, engineers, and emergency service people plan and train for earthquakes with the most advanced technology in the world. In Bam, Iran, homes aren’t much different than they were in the sixth century, simple mud adobe.
Reuters reported that U.N. officials said about 40,000 people are left in Bam - most spending the bitterly cold nights in tents - out of an original population of 103,000. The rest are thought to be either dead, missing, in hospital or had gotten the hell away from there. I can’t blame them, I left L.A. for Iowa looking for more stable ground.
“420” is a number used by teenagers. To some it refers to 4:20 pm, the supposed average time most high school marijuana users light up. For others it represents April 20th, Adolph Hitler’s birthday. “420” reminds still others of the Columbine High School Massacre which occurred on April 20, 1999.
“431” is a time. It’s the time in the morning when I most often wake up when I’m suffering from insomnia.
At 4:31 A.M., Pacific Standard Time, on Monday, January 17, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the densely populated San Fernando Valley, in northern Los Angeles. Thousands of aftershocks, many in the magnitude 4.0 to 5.0 range, rocked the valley during the next few weeks.
Initially they CALLED it a 6.5, then 6.7. There were rumors floating around L.A. in 1994 that it was closer to a 7.2, but that Cal Tech stuck with 6.8 because many insurance companies wouldn’t have to pay for any damages produced by any earthquake of a 7.0 magnitude or higher.
Anything above a 7 is considered an “act of God.” Believe me, if you’ve ever experienced an earthquake above a 5.0, you’d call it an “act of God.”
It was our first year out of college. We were teaching at L.A. Lutheran Jr/Sr High School. Actually, I spent the mornings at Trinity middle school in Reseda and spent my lunch hours on the freeway to get to LHS in the north Valley for the afternoon. First year teaching is hard for anyone. We lived in a tiny one-bedroom in a poor suburb called Sylmar. 600 sq feet for $660 per month.
My in-laws, Marge and Allan Neddermeyer were visiting us during the three-day MLKjr weekend.
They were supposed to fly home Monday. Saturday night there had been a small earthquake out in the ocean, off the coast from Malibu. It had been unseasonably warm, in the eighties. Natives called it “earthquake weather,” but that meant nothing to us.
We had purchased a new couch, but the Salvation Army wasn’t making pick ups on Sunday, so we had to store our old sofa (a pull out bed) in the garage. We propped it up against the wall next to our car. “Is it sturdy enough? Oh yeah, the only thing that would make that thing fall would be an earth quake.” Prophetic, we never did gat that dent out of the hood, but many or our neighbors had the top two stories of apartments bury the cars in their first floor garages!
Mom and Dad were our guests, so they got the bedroom. Doors on either side of the bathroom separated us from them in the living room. We were on an air mattress , when we made the bed we chose to sleep with our feet toward the entertainment system. That was a good decision, since the TV would’ve landed on our heads if we’d slept the other way.
At 4:31 we were rudely awakened by the quake. The air mattress felt like a pontoon raft in white water rapids shooting down the Colorado river in the Grand Canyon. Experts say that it didn’t last more than 18-30 seconds but it felt like several minutes. Bethany later teased me because I was reciting the Lord’s Prayer over and over as fast as I could. I’ve done that on really scary roller coasters too while my knuckles turn white.
Pitch black since all power was out. Battery powered car and home alarms were screaming, neighbors and their children crying and screaming, your body filled with adrenaline just like it is right after a car accident…you can see that this would be the one situation where it would not be so irrational to imagine that this was the end of the world.
Our front door was ajar, but jammed so that it wouldn’t open much wider. All of the bathroom drawers were out of the vanity. Since doors on both sides of the bathroom opened in, they were jammed and we were separated from our parents in the bedroom on the other side. The refrigerator was out of its hole and leaning against the kitchen counter. The microwave had been thrown 8 or 10 feet across the kitchen.
When we walked across the room glass crunched under our bare feet. If it weren’t covered by a layer of books that fell off the shelves, our feet would’ve surely been bloody.
When the first aftershock came, we felt like we were on a rope bridge, or in a small boat being tossed around on a stormy sea, when all four of us had gotten Marge and Allan out of the bedroom, we got out of the apartment. The pool in the center courtyard was a little more than half empty. Dozens of neighbors gathered together on the curb of the street outside the apartment complex. All of us in our underwear, most without shoes. It’s amazing how cold it is at 5 o’clock in the morning in January, even in Southern California! Some Good Samaritans with shoes and flash lights ventured back inside to retrieve blackest and robes for others. When an aftershock would hit, it felt as if the asphalt were waving like a billowing blanket on a clothesline in the breeze. It’s a surreal feeling.
Dozens of strangers sitting on the curb the curb together. Several were smoking cigarettes to try to settle their nerves even though we could all smell the natural gas escaping from severed gas lines. We heard siren after siren and helicopter after helicopter, but no police or ambulance ever stopped at our complex. That meant that this had to be huge. Was this the legendary “big one?” How big was it? What was left of L.A.? Was it WWIII? The end of the world? Some kind of disaster movie? A trailer park across the freeway from our complex blazed with fires. This and the dawn were the only lights we had.
Official reports put the death toll around 57, including a janitor who was smashed by the parking garage at the Northridge Mall. More than 1,500 people were seriously injured. 9,000 homes and businesses were still without electricity for days afterward. 20,000 without gas; and over 48,500 had little or no water.
The official reports say that nearly 12,500 structures were damaged, leaving thousands temporarily homeless. 6% of the over 66 thousand buildings inspected were severely damaged (“red tagged”) and 17% were moderately damaged (“yellow tagged”).
The strange thing about an earthquake is that it fishers out like the spider-web cracks in your windshield when it’s hit by a pebble. So our apartment was damaged beyond repair, but not destroyed, another building in our complex was damaged first, the top floors caved in on the lowest level. One neighbor had just pulled out of his garage at 4:30 on his way to National Guard duty. He said that he hit his remote for his garage door to come down, but instead the entire building came down! Yet less than 2 miles away we had a fellow teacher who had only one pitcher fall off of her kitchen counter. She was a native and wasn’t even awakened by the quake.
Our apartment was red tagged. We were homeless. Later that morning gathered clothes and photo albums into our car and somehow made it to a cousin’s house a couple of hours south. There we sat dazed watching their CNN all day, seeing lines of people buying bottled water at grocery stores and horror stories about deaths and desperate searches for survivors.
Marge and Allan stayed another week or two to help us find a new apartment and salvage the rest of our belongings. The airline graciously honored their passes. Parents and kids sometimes become friends when the kids become adults, but few people have a bond like those of us who’ve been through a crisis together.
And like a soldier, a decade later, I still struggle with post traumatic stress disorder. More stressed, irritable, depressed and sleepless.
According to Reuters News Service, at 5:26 AM on 26 December 2003, an earthquake shook a large area of Iran. The epicenter of the devastating earthquake is located a few miles South West of a city called Bam. I bet the survivors thought that it lived up to its name that morning.
Iranian scientists revised the magnitude up to 6.8, from a previous estimate of 6.3 on the Richter scale. Yeah, try over 7.0, guys. Some Iranian officials have estimated their death toll at nearly 50,000.
Los Angeles architects, engineers, and emergency service people plan and train for earthquakes with the most advanced technology in the world. In Bam, Iran, homes aren’t much different than they were in the sixth century, simple mud adobe.
Reuters reported that U.N. officials said about 40,000 people are left in Bam - most spending the bitterly cold nights in tents - out of an original population of 103,000. The rest are thought to be either dead, missing, in hospital or had gotten the hell away from there. I can’t blame them, I left L.A. for Iowa looking for more stable ground.
Thursday, January 15, 2004
Kids say the darnedest things
I thought Gracie used to say funny things. Other kids are constantly saying “Why?” When she was two and we’d be out in public she’d keep pointing to people and asking “Who’s that guy? Who’s ‘dat guy?”
Just before Christmas I took her to the doctor in Denison for an awful cough. It was actually a funny story to begin with. The earliest they could see her was “sometime after three.” I took my last hour class off so that I could leave school early. I called the babysitter to let her know I’d be picking Grace up around 2:30.
“Oh, that’s too bad,” said Judy Bockeman, Gracie’s babysitter, “Santa was going to come about 2:45.”
“Oh, well, I hate to be a Grinch, but Grace’s seen him several times this season already, that’s just the way it’s gotta be,” I sighed.
No problem, the Dunlap highway is no L.A. freeway- it has no lights and almost no traffic. Except that this day some farmer was moving at least 30 head of cattle along the highway. A couple of pick-ups, a couple of four-runners, at a cow’s pace.
So she got to see Santa because I didn’t get there till ten after three. Well, we got to the doctors’ by 3:40 and didn’t get in till 4:30, but that’s the way doctor appointments go, right?
My point was, I had almost a half hour alone in the van with one of my kids, so I tried my best to spark up a conversation. I asked her about Santa.
She told me he drives a blue pick-up. “What about his sleigh?” I asked her, “Does he pull the sleigh with the pick-up or do the reindeer pull the pick-up?”
“No, silly!” she protested, “That’s only on Christmas Eve!”
“What is, the pick-up?” I asked.
“No, da sleigh is only on Christmas Eve, da rest of da time he drives a bwoo pick-up!” she explained.
Evidently Santa only rides the fire truck to the Commercial club’s Santa Claus Night.
Anyway, I used to think that Gracie said funny things, like when she scolds our cat, she calls him “King Neddermeyer!” Apparently he doesn’t have a middle name or I’m sure she’d use it too.
I used to think that Gracie said funny things, but now her little sister Ellie has become a chatterbox.
One night she was dipping her green beans in her catsup as if they were French fries. “Mmmmm, yum!” she said.
“Is that good?” I asked.
She paused, looked at the green bean in her hand and wrinkled up her little brow, finally she protested-
“Dat not a ‘good,’ dat’s a BEAN!”
I understand why she calls her Grandma Marge “Mawdgie.” I THINK I can understand that she calls her Great-Grandma Laura “Mawdgie,” I just hope she doesn’t call my Mom that the next time she sees her.
What I don’t get is why she calls Grace “Helwen.”
“No, no honey,” we try to explain to her “YOUR name is ‘Ellen,’ her name is ‘Gracie,’ can you say ‘Gracie?’”
“Gwacie,” she’ll say.
“Good, that’s good, now what’s HER name?” we’ll ask and point to Grace.
“Helwen!”
It’s crazy, I’ll say “Ellen, please go get your sister ‘Grace,’ supper’s ready.” and invariably, she’ll start calling “HELWEN! Suppa’s weady!...Where’s Helwen?” I just don’t get it.
The cutest story my cheerleaders love to hear me tell was when I was cleaning the kitchen the night before her birthday party.
“Da-aad, what doing?” asked Ellie.
“I’m cleaning” I answered.
“Why?”
“Uh, because we want the house to look nice,” I said.
“Why?” she pursued further.
“Because we’re going to have people over,” I continued.
“Why?”
“Because it’s your birthday! We’re having a party, you’re going to be TWO!” I said, hoping to see her get excited.
In stead she paused and crunched up her little brow for almost half a minute, finally she waved her hand at me, frowned and protested- “No, YOU’RE TWO!”
Just before Christmas I took her to the doctor in Denison for an awful cough. It was actually a funny story to begin with. The earliest they could see her was “sometime after three.” I took my last hour class off so that I could leave school early. I called the babysitter to let her know I’d be picking Grace up around 2:30.
“Oh, that’s too bad,” said Judy Bockeman, Gracie’s babysitter, “Santa was going to come about 2:45.”
“Oh, well, I hate to be a Grinch, but Grace’s seen him several times this season already, that’s just the way it’s gotta be,” I sighed.
No problem, the Dunlap highway is no L.A. freeway- it has no lights and almost no traffic. Except that this day some farmer was moving at least 30 head of cattle along the highway. A couple of pick-ups, a couple of four-runners, at a cow’s pace.
So she got to see Santa because I didn’t get there till ten after three. Well, we got to the doctors’ by 3:40 and didn’t get in till 4:30, but that’s the way doctor appointments go, right?
My point was, I had almost a half hour alone in the van with one of my kids, so I tried my best to spark up a conversation. I asked her about Santa.
She told me he drives a blue pick-up. “What about his sleigh?” I asked her, “Does he pull the sleigh with the pick-up or do the reindeer pull the pick-up?”
“No, silly!” she protested, “That’s only on Christmas Eve!”
“What is, the pick-up?” I asked.
“No, da sleigh is only on Christmas Eve, da rest of da time he drives a bwoo pick-up!” she explained.
Evidently Santa only rides the fire truck to the Commercial club’s Santa Claus Night.
Anyway, I used to think that Gracie said funny things, like when she scolds our cat, she calls him “King Neddermeyer!” Apparently he doesn’t have a middle name or I’m sure she’d use it too.
I used to think that Gracie said funny things, but now her little sister Ellie has become a chatterbox.
One night she was dipping her green beans in her catsup as if they were French fries. “Mmmmm, yum!” she said.
“Is that good?” I asked.
She paused, looked at the green bean in her hand and wrinkled up her little brow, finally she protested-
“Dat not a ‘good,’ dat’s a BEAN!”
I understand why she calls her Grandma Marge “Mawdgie.” I THINK I can understand that she calls her Great-Grandma Laura “Mawdgie,” I just hope she doesn’t call my Mom that the next time she sees her.
What I don’t get is why she calls Grace “Helwen.”
“No, no honey,” we try to explain to her “YOUR name is ‘Ellen,’ her name is ‘Gracie,’ can you say ‘Gracie?’”
“Gwacie,” she’ll say.
“Good, that’s good, now what’s HER name?” we’ll ask and point to Grace.
“Helwen!”
It’s crazy, I’ll say “Ellen, please go get your sister ‘Grace,’ supper’s ready.” and invariably, she’ll start calling “HELWEN! Suppa’s weady!...Where’s Helwen?” I just don’t get it.
The cutest story my cheerleaders love to hear me tell was when I was cleaning the kitchen the night before her birthday party.
“Da-aad, what doing?” asked Ellie.
“I’m cleaning” I answered.
“Why?”
“Uh, because we want the house to look nice,” I said.
“Why?” she pursued further.
“Because we’re going to have people over,” I continued.
“Why?”
“Because it’s your birthday! We’re having a party, you’re going to be TWO!” I said, hoping to see her get excited.
In stead she paused and crunched up her little brow for almost half a minute, finally she waved her hand at me, frowned and protested- “No, YOU’RE TWO!”
Thursday, January 08, 2004
A Caucus Primer
Iowa’s “First in the Nation Caucuses” are just a couple of weeks away, on January 19th. As a public service, here’s my personal guide to the 2 or 3 major parties and their candidates:
Who knows if or when the Reform Party will hold a national convention. They basically broke apart at their 1999 convention in Long Beach, California. It looks like party activist and businessman Ted Weill is the frontrunner for the party's 2004 Presidential nomination. Weill is both the Mississippi Reform Party Chairman and a Reform Party National Committeeman. I know this is prejudiced on my part, but I for one am terrified of fringe party candidates from Mississippi…and Alabama…and South Carolina. See where I’m going with this?
Weill opposes giving money to other countries, hopes to lower the cost of gas and create jobs by pursuing alternative fuels. He thinks prisoners should be used for slave labor, that all prescriptions should be made available for no more than $5 and wants to offer free college internet classes and free adoptions. Exciting.
The Green Party National Convention is the earliest one. It will be in Milwaukee, WI June 23-28, 2004. Beer and cheese. Sounds like a party.
Their most likely candidate, of course is consumer advocate, liberal activist and Harvard-educated attorney, this will be Ralph Nader’s fourth Presidential. But there’s also David Cobb, a lawyer who’s the General Counsel for the Green Party of the United States (GP-US) and helped to found the Green Party of Texas.
What can I tell you? I have a friend who used to be a hard core Republican who decided that true democratic reform, consumer rights and the environment were more important to him than voting for people who actually get elected.
The Democratic National Convention will be July 26-29 in Boston Massatchusetts. Staunch Democratic country. Expect to see lots of Kennedys, with the exception perhaps of California’s First Lady Maria Schriver-Shwarzenagger.
Former Ambassador to New Zealand Carol Moseley Braun is a former Senator from Illinois. Her big issues are funding for public schools and, as you might guess, diversity. She knows she’s not going to get the nomination, but believes her voice is important to the race. I can see her getting a Cabinet job if a Democrat is elected.
Retired General Wesley Clark is the former commander of NATO durring Kosovo. He’s a moderate, the darling of the fiscally conservative Democratic Leadership Conference. But I don’t know what else he stands for, but I like that he’s one of only 2 candidates to say President Bush went to war with Iraq too soon and without any advanced plans for getting us out.
Right now it looks like the frontrunner is New Hampshire Governor Howard Dean. I’ve liked him all along. I keep telling people he reminds me of a Democratic John McCain. Just a little edge, just a dash of indignation. He opposed the war, he opposes monster deficits. He makes the Party leadership nervous enough that moderate swing voters will think he’s his own man. All he has to do is debate Bush and he’s got a chance. He much more relaxed and natural than Gore was. I think he stands a chance.
High school girls like North Carolina Senator John Edwards. Young, handsome, innovative ideas. I can see him as an ideal pick for Dean’s running mate. If Dean wins the nomination, he’s going to need a moderate Southerner to balance the ticket and General Clark may not be Southern enough, plus Clark comes off as too intelectual.Conservatives and swing moderates seem to be afraid of brains, especially articulate ones- wittness our current President.
I actually perferred Missouri Congressman Dick Gephardt over Gore, but I voted for New Jersy Senator Bill Bradley in the 2000 Primary. I even perferred Gephardt over Clinton, but in 1988 I voted for Illinois Senator Paul Simon. He recently passed away after heart surgery. He was Lutheran. What can I say, I like intelligence. Watching Gephardt this time around, I saw too much artificial anger, like he was trying to act like Gore was trying to act in the last election. He used to be about labor, farming, and health care, now he looks like he’s just about running for President one last time.
I like Massatchusetts Senator John Kerry. I’d rather vote for Nebraska Senator Bob Kerry. They’re both veterans, they’re both smart and articulate. There is the married to the Heintz Katsup heiress thing, and the Massatchusetts thing. Republican fodder.
Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich? Two words, Michael Dukakis. Only divorced.
Conecticut Senator Joe Lieberman may be upset that former Vice President Gore didn’t give him his endorsement, but that didn’t mean he had to become a Republican. Supporting our troops doesn’t mean you have to have supported the President’s decision to go to war, even Republicans know that. You don’t try appealing to the swing voters in the primaries, you wait until you’ve got the nomination, but Lieberman doesn’t seem to get that.
Who does Reverend Al Sharpton think he is? Lets face it, even Liberal Democrats think this guy makes Jesse Jackson look as religiously legitimate as Billy Graham and as politically conservative as Jerry Fawell. It’s not that he’s radical, its not that he’s black, it’s that he’s a wacko.
The Republican National Convention will be in New York City, August 30-Sept 6. At first, it was going to be a cruise on the Hudson river. I can’t blame Republicans for not wanting to actually be in the city itself. Democrats out number them 5 to 1 there. But Republican Mayor Blooburg talked them into bringing their millions of dollars into Manhattan it’s self. My theory is that it’s one big photo-op. The GOP wants to capitalize on 9/11, but I’m pretty cynical and just a little conspiracy minded. I blame that on Watergate.
What do I think of President Goerge W. Bush? Massive deficits, failed foreign policy, failed education policy, Massive tax cuts to billionares at the expense of our children’s future, failed economic policy, lied to the American people to make us think that Saddam Hussein and Iraq had something to do with Al Queda, Bin Laden or 9/11 so that he could unilaterally and “pre-emptively” invade a tiny country so that his and his Vice President’s friends could make money off the oil, not smart, not articulate.
Other than that, he’s a great guy. Nice, personable, down to earth, faith and family are important. Did I mention that he did not come to office by winning the popular election of the majority of Americans? What more do you want?
I wanted at least one other Republican to challenge him for his party’s nomination. I wanted Arizona Republican John McCain or Bill Bradley, or one of them as President and the other as Vice President. But, you can’t have it all.
Who knows if or when the Reform Party will hold a national convention. They basically broke apart at their 1999 convention in Long Beach, California. It looks like party activist and businessman Ted Weill is the frontrunner for the party's 2004 Presidential nomination. Weill is both the Mississippi Reform Party Chairman and a Reform Party National Committeeman. I know this is prejudiced on my part, but I for one am terrified of fringe party candidates from Mississippi…and Alabama…and South Carolina. See where I’m going with this?
Weill opposes giving money to other countries, hopes to lower the cost of gas and create jobs by pursuing alternative fuels. He thinks prisoners should be used for slave labor, that all prescriptions should be made available for no more than $5 and wants to offer free college internet classes and free adoptions. Exciting.
The Green Party National Convention is the earliest one. It will be in Milwaukee, WI June 23-28, 2004. Beer and cheese. Sounds like a party.
Their most likely candidate, of course is consumer advocate, liberal activist and Harvard-educated attorney, this will be Ralph Nader’s fourth Presidential. But there’s also David Cobb, a lawyer who’s the General Counsel for the Green Party of the United States (GP-US) and helped to found the Green Party of Texas.
What can I tell you? I have a friend who used to be a hard core Republican who decided that true democratic reform, consumer rights and the environment were more important to him than voting for people who actually get elected.
The Democratic National Convention will be July 26-29 in Boston Massatchusetts. Staunch Democratic country. Expect to see lots of Kennedys, with the exception perhaps of California’s First Lady Maria Schriver-Shwarzenagger.
Former Ambassador to New Zealand Carol Moseley Braun is a former Senator from Illinois. Her big issues are funding for public schools and, as you might guess, diversity. She knows she’s not going to get the nomination, but believes her voice is important to the race. I can see her getting a Cabinet job if a Democrat is elected.
Retired General Wesley Clark is the former commander of NATO durring Kosovo. He’s a moderate, the darling of the fiscally conservative Democratic Leadership Conference. But I don’t know what else he stands for, but I like that he’s one of only 2 candidates to say President Bush went to war with Iraq too soon and without any advanced plans for getting us out.
Right now it looks like the frontrunner is New Hampshire Governor Howard Dean. I’ve liked him all along. I keep telling people he reminds me of a Democratic John McCain. Just a little edge, just a dash of indignation. He opposed the war, he opposes monster deficits. He makes the Party leadership nervous enough that moderate swing voters will think he’s his own man. All he has to do is debate Bush and he’s got a chance. He much more relaxed and natural than Gore was. I think he stands a chance.
High school girls like North Carolina Senator John Edwards. Young, handsome, innovative ideas. I can see him as an ideal pick for Dean’s running mate. If Dean wins the nomination, he’s going to need a moderate Southerner to balance the ticket and General Clark may not be Southern enough, plus Clark comes off as too intelectual.Conservatives and swing moderates seem to be afraid of brains, especially articulate ones- wittness our current President.
I actually perferred Missouri Congressman Dick Gephardt over Gore, but I voted for New Jersy Senator Bill Bradley in the 2000 Primary. I even perferred Gephardt over Clinton, but in 1988 I voted for Illinois Senator Paul Simon. He recently passed away after heart surgery. He was Lutheran. What can I say, I like intelligence. Watching Gephardt this time around, I saw too much artificial anger, like he was trying to act like Gore was trying to act in the last election. He used to be about labor, farming, and health care, now he looks like he’s just about running for President one last time.
I like Massatchusetts Senator John Kerry. I’d rather vote for Nebraska Senator Bob Kerry. They’re both veterans, they’re both smart and articulate. There is the married to the Heintz Katsup heiress thing, and the Massatchusetts thing. Republican fodder.
Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich? Two words, Michael Dukakis. Only divorced.
Conecticut Senator Joe Lieberman may be upset that former Vice President Gore didn’t give him his endorsement, but that didn’t mean he had to become a Republican. Supporting our troops doesn’t mean you have to have supported the President’s decision to go to war, even Republicans know that. You don’t try appealing to the swing voters in the primaries, you wait until you’ve got the nomination, but Lieberman doesn’t seem to get that.
Who does Reverend Al Sharpton think he is? Lets face it, even Liberal Democrats think this guy makes Jesse Jackson look as religiously legitimate as Billy Graham and as politically conservative as Jerry Fawell. It’s not that he’s radical, its not that he’s black, it’s that he’s a wacko.
The Republican National Convention will be in New York City, August 30-Sept 6. At first, it was going to be a cruise on the Hudson river. I can’t blame Republicans for not wanting to actually be in the city itself. Democrats out number them 5 to 1 there. But Republican Mayor Blooburg talked them into bringing their millions of dollars into Manhattan it’s self. My theory is that it’s one big photo-op. The GOP wants to capitalize on 9/11, but I’m pretty cynical and just a little conspiracy minded. I blame that on Watergate.
What do I think of President Goerge W. Bush? Massive deficits, failed foreign policy, failed education policy, Massive tax cuts to billionares at the expense of our children’s future, failed economic policy, lied to the American people to make us think that Saddam Hussein and Iraq had something to do with Al Queda, Bin Laden or 9/11 so that he could unilaterally and “pre-emptively” invade a tiny country so that his and his Vice President’s friends could make money off the oil, not smart, not articulate.
Other than that, he’s a great guy. Nice, personable, down to earth, faith and family are important. Did I mention that he did not come to office by winning the popular election of the majority of Americans? What more do you want?
I wanted at least one other Republican to challenge him for his party’s nomination. I wanted Arizona Republican John McCain or Bill Bradley, or one of them as President and the other as Vice President. But, you can’t have it all.
Thursday, January 01, 2004
Top 10 Resolutions; Or ‘Blame it on Baghdad’
Did you know that New Years was created by the Babylonians over four thousand years ago? So if you hate making New Year’s resolutions, it’s just one more thing to blame on Baghdad.
I was curious what the most popular New Year’s resolutions in America were. So I ran a Google search on the internet. You’d think that the Gallup Poll people might have a list, wouldn’t you? Nope. USA Today? No. CNN? Time? Well, they had a Year in Photos, but nothing about resolutions. Finally “About.com” had something, but it was from their “Guide to Philadelphia” section, so it’s really not a necessarily representative of all of us.
By the way, you have to be really careful when you make a Google search. I tried typing in “Year-in-review,” whoa Nelly, you would not believe the websites Google turned up when I accidentally typed “Rear-in-review.”
Be that as it may, her is my brief commentary on About.com’s top 10 New Year’s Resolutions
1) Spend More Time with Family & Friends
According to About.com, General Nutrition Centers took a poll that says that 59% of Americans promise to spend more time with family and friends this year. Are most of GNC’s customers spending too much time at work? Or at the Gym maybe? I’d like to spend more time with my family and friends, but for some reason all the High School Athletic Directors and Basketball coaches think that kids have to play two or three games a week December through March. I don’t know why that is. Schools only play one football game a week all fall. Don’t get me wrong, Sports are good for kids, teach life lessons, build character, etc.
2) Fit in Fitness
Everybody knows that exercise is associated with all kinds of health benefits. “Reduces the risk of cancer… increases longevity, helps achieve & maintain weight loss, enhances mood, lowers blood pressure, and even improves arthritis etc. etc. blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda.” Okay, About.com didn’t use all the “blahs” and “yaddas.” I know all this stuff. We all know all this stuff, but that doesn’t make me like it, or get me out of bed at 4:30 in the morning to do it. Especially when I don’t get home till 11:30 after the basketball game. And it’s going to be 18˚ and icy or muddy at 4:30 between now and June.
3) Tame the Bulge
About.com says that ”Fifty-five percent of adults in America are overweight” Yea!!! That means that 55% of Americans don’t look down their noses at me for being such a fat slob! By the way, have you noticed a trend here? Is it About.com, or GNC? No, I think it’s pretty natural. In fact, I think this is #1 on most of our lists of resolutions. It has been on mine for say the last 25 years of so. I was doing pretty good from June to September, but I pretty much fell off the wagon in October.
4) Quit Smoking
They say this one takes at least two years to achieve. Supposedly, cigarettes are even more addictive than heroine. I smoked a few cigars back in college. I fancied my self a connoisseur. As if a 19 year old can be a connoisseur. Anyway, being a tobacco-snob is like being an imported-beer-snob, it’s too expensive to become too habit forming. The real thing that helped me quit was Bethany. She was my fiancé at the time. She offered to buy me a “Goya de Nicuragua” (my favorite stogie), but she told me that there was no way she’d be kissin’ me for several days. For the rest of you, I’d like to recommend http://www.quitnet.com.
5) Enjoy Life More
Forced to spend more time with your family, having to eat less, get up early to exercise, and no more cigars? What kind of a life does About.com want me to lead? Next they’ll be telling me I can’t drink anymore either.
Seriously though, getting more sleep, being healthier and more fit, losing weight, spending more time with my family and maybe some St. John’s Wort will help.
6) Quit Drinking
Remember, I’ve got that Imported-Beer-Snob thing going. I like Miller Lite and I’ll tolerate Bud Light, but my alcohol is pretty few and far between. Although, my friends on the Atkin’s diet tell me that it’s a carbohydrate/weight loss issue too. That’s an idea that has merit.
7) Get Out of Debt
OW, ow, ow. This might take more than a year. It also might require that I start buying lottery tickets, unfortunately I can’t afford the dollar a week, even with all the money I save on cigarettes and beer. Plus there’s all that St. John’s Wort I’m buying, and the membership at the gym.
8) Learn Something New
Last year I planned on learning how to play the guitar. I even ran out and bought “Guitar for Dummies.” This year I plan on watching the Discovery Channel a lot, that way I can learn useful stuff like how to make a Chevy Suburban into a mobile Las Vegas wedding chapel.
9) Help Others
Was it Ben Franklin who said “God helps those who help themselves?” I don’t know. It may be selfish, but it’s hard to take care # 9 when you can’t even help yourself enough to take care of # 1 through 8.
10) Get Organized
Yeah right. I started reading this book on Adult Attention Deficit Disorder once, but I just didn’t have the patience to finish it.
The only real resolution I made this year was to write shorter columns, but it looks like I’ll have to try again next year.
I was curious what the most popular New Year’s resolutions in America were. So I ran a Google search on the internet. You’d think that the Gallup Poll people might have a list, wouldn’t you? Nope. USA Today? No. CNN? Time? Well, they had a Year in Photos, but nothing about resolutions. Finally “About.com” had something, but it was from their “Guide to Philadelphia” section, so it’s really not a necessarily representative of all of us.
By the way, you have to be really careful when you make a Google search. I tried typing in “Year-in-review,” whoa Nelly, you would not believe the websites Google turned up when I accidentally typed “Rear-in-review.”
Be that as it may, her is my brief commentary on About.com’s top 10 New Year’s Resolutions
1) Spend More Time with Family & Friends
According to About.com, General Nutrition Centers took a poll that says that 59% of Americans promise to spend more time with family and friends this year. Are most of GNC’s customers spending too much time at work? Or at the Gym maybe? I’d like to spend more time with my family and friends, but for some reason all the High School Athletic Directors and Basketball coaches think that kids have to play two or three games a week December through March. I don’t know why that is. Schools only play one football game a week all fall. Don’t get me wrong, Sports are good for kids, teach life lessons, build character, etc.
2) Fit in Fitness
Everybody knows that exercise is associated with all kinds of health benefits. “Reduces the risk of cancer… increases longevity, helps achieve & maintain weight loss, enhances mood, lowers blood pressure, and even improves arthritis etc. etc. blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda.” Okay, About.com didn’t use all the “blahs” and “yaddas.” I know all this stuff. We all know all this stuff, but that doesn’t make me like it, or get me out of bed at 4:30 in the morning to do it. Especially when I don’t get home till 11:30 after the basketball game. And it’s going to be 18˚ and icy or muddy at 4:30 between now and June.
3) Tame the Bulge
About.com says that ”Fifty-five percent of adults in America are overweight” Yea!!! That means that 55% of Americans don’t look down their noses at me for being such a fat slob! By the way, have you noticed a trend here? Is it About.com, or GNC? No, I think it’s pretty natural. In fact, I think this is #1 on most of our lists of resolutions. It has been on mine for say the last 25 years of so. I was doing pretty good from June to September, but I pretty much fell off the wagon in October.
4) Quit Smoking
They say this one takes at least two years to achieve. Supposedly, cigarettes are even more addictive than heroine. I smoked a few cigars back in college. I fancied my self a connoisseur. As if a 19 year old can be a connoisseur. Anyway, being a tobacco-snob is like being an imported-beer-snob, it’s too expensive to become too habit forming. The real thing that helped me quit was Bethany. She was my fiancé at the time. She offered to buy me a “Goya de Nicuragua” (my favorite stogie), but she told me that there was no way she’d be kissin’ me for several days. For the rest of you, I’d like to recommend http://www.quitnet.com.
5) Enjoy Life More
Forced to spend more time with your family, having to eat less, get up early to exercise, and no more cigars? What kind of a life does About.com want me to lead? Next they’ll be telling me I can’t drink anymore either.
Seriously though, getting more sleep, being healthier and more fit, losing weight, spending more time with my family and maybe some St. John’s Wort will help.
6) Quit Drinking
Remember, I’ve got that Imported-Beer-Snob thing going. I like Miller Lite and I’ll tolerate Bud Light, but my alcohol is pretty few and far between. Although, my friends on the Atkin’s diet tell me that it’s a carbohydrate/weight loss issue too. That’s an idea that has merit.
7) Get Out of Debt
OW, ow, ow. This might take more than a year. It also might require that I start buying lottery tickets, unfortunately I can’t afford the dollar a week, even with all the money I save on cigarettes and beer. Plus there’s all that St. John’s Wort I’m buying, and the membership at the gym.
8) Learn Something New
Last year I planned on learning how to play the guitar. I even ran out and bought “Guitar for Dummies.” This year I plan on watching the Discovery Channel a lot, that way I can learn useful stuff like how to make a Chevy Suburban into a mobile Las Vegas wedding chapel.
9) Help Others
Was it Ben Franklin who said “God helps those who help themselves?” I don’t know. It may be selfish, but it’s hard to take care # 9 when you can’t even help yourself enough to take care of # 1 through 8.
10) Get Organized
Yeah right. I started reading this book on Adult Attention Deficit Disorder once, but I just didn’t have the patience to finish it.
The only real resolution I made this year was to write shorter columns, but it looks like I’ll have to try again next year.
Thursday, December 25, 2003
Exclusive Christmas Interview!
SN: So Ted, how have you been? Would you like another interview this year?
TM: Nick, you know I’m always up for excusive interviews with world famous celebrities like yourself
SN: Alright then, lets get started, this is my busy season, as you know.
TM: Well, how about a current events question? What do you think about the capture of Saddam Hussein?
SN: You know, I try to stay out of politics. I’m sort of a one-man Switzerland if you know what I mean. That’s one of the reasons for locating my headquarters where I do, it’s very out-of-the-way. Suffices to say He’d been on my ‘naughty’ list for a lot of years and I think it finally caught up with him.
TM: Fair enough. How about a little background? So the North Pole’s not really home? Where are you from originally?
SN: Lycia, Myra
TM: Come again?
SN: Asia Minor, not far from the modern city of Demre, on Mediterranean coast in southwest Turkey
TM: Oh, well, surely you have some opinions on Turkey’s role in Iraqi reconstruction?
SN: The Turks have no love for Saddam, but my homeland was over run by the Turks in 808. The Caliph Harun ar-Rashid was another dictator who persecuted people he considered different. So you’ll forgive me if I don’t think it’s my war.
TM: Ouch. Sorry, I didn’t mean to touch a nerve. So is it true what they say? ‘You CAN’T go home again.’
TM: Oh, well, surely you have some opinions on Turkey’s role in Iraqi reconstruction?
SN: Oh, well, in my case, you can’t even go back to Constantinople.
TM: Why’s that?
SN: Well, now they call it Istanbul.
TM: I’m getting that religious persecution is a sore point for you. Is that because people call it ‘X-Mas’ instead of Christmas?
SN: No, that’s because of Cæsar Diocletian made me a martyr in 325, the same year Constantine came to power and legalized Christianity, but a day late and a dollar short for me. Really it was General Galerius who hated Christianity and Diocletian went along with it, he was playing politics, trying to balance the interests Galerius, Maximillian, and Constantine and hold on to power. The Empire had gotten way too big and too corrupt. So you see why I hate politics. It gets in the way of helping people and it gets in the way of spreading the Gospel.
TM: S-S-S-So you’re dead?
SN: No Einstein, I’m seven hundred and three years old. I’m a spirit, of course I’m dead.
TM: Oh, sorry, gosh, you don’t look a day over 500.
SN: Thanks, I gave up smoking in the 1980’s. This is kind of dragging, can you spice it up a little?
TM: Uh, Okay, uh, don’t like politics. How about religion?
SN: Now you’re talkin’. That’s right up my alley. Did you know Lycia was St. Paul’s last stop on his way to Rome?
TM: THE Saint Paul? You got to meet St. Paul?
SN: Well, yeah, but not till 325. His missionary journeys were like 250 years before I was born.
TM: Oh, sure, I get confused.
SN: That’s alright, you’re only mortal, I should cut you some slack. At any rate, as a young man, I wanted the solitary life. I made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where I found a place to withdraw to devote himself to prayer. But God told me that I should return home and spread His Good News. Eventually I was ordained bishop.
TM: Bishop, eh? How do you feel about the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire ordaining Gene Robinson their Bishop?
SN: You don’t let up do you? I thought you were different than other journalist. Is controversy all you’re interested in? I’m known for providing for the poor and needy, and delivering those who had been unjustly accused.
TM: Come on, didn’t you ever face controversy during your lifetime?
SN: Well, some people tell me I wasn’t martyred but I passed away in 334, and my body was stolen and taken to Bari, Italy in 1087. Some people claim that I performed a lot of miracles posthumously, is that controversial enough?
TM: Come on, Nick, readers want something juicy. Were you ever in a fight?
SN: I’m actually most famous for having secretly given money so that three sisters could pay dowries and marry, avoiding being sold into prostitution by their father. That’s where the whole stocking thing started, see I couldn’t just break into someone’s house, what would people think?
TM: No no no, everybody knows that stuff. These days we want our heroes to be macho, aggressive.
SN: There was that time at the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325. That infernal Lybian Arius. He claimed that Jesus wasn’t truly the Son of God. I just couldn’t help my self. He made me so angry, I walloped him one. Why, the other clergy there were so taken aback. Priests aren’t allowed to hit people you know. But they knew I was right.
TM: Wow, you go Santa! Now, be honest, is there anything now days that makes you that angry?
SN: Well, I tell ya, I don’t much care for people trying to make me out to be some kind of Nordic magician or Norse god or something. And it did break my heart when World Trade Center business destroyed tiny St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, about 500 feet from ground zero.
TM: What is the ONE thing that you want readers to remember today, Christmas 2003?
SN: That’s an easy one- “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord!” And “to all a good night!”
TM: Nick, you know I’m always up for excusive interviews with world famous celebrities like yourself
SN: Alright then, lets get started, this is my busy season, as you know.
TM: Well, how about a current events question? What do you think about the capture of Saddam Hussein?
SN: You know, I try to stay out of politics. I’m sort of a one-man Switzerland if you know what I mean. That’s one of the reasons for locating my headquarters where I do, it’s very out-of-the-way. Suffices to say He’d been on my ‘naughty’ list for a lot of years and I think it finally caught up with him.
TM: Fair enough. How about a little background? So the North Pole’s not really home? Where are you from originally?
SN: Lycia, Myra
TM: Come again?
SN: Asia Minor, not far from the modern city of Demre, on Mediterranean coast in southwest Turkey
TM: Oh, well, surely you have some opinions on Turkey’s role in Iraqi reconstruction?
SN: The Turks have no love for Saddam, but my homeland was over run by the Turks in 808. The Caliph Harun ar-Rashid was another dictator who persecuted people he considered different. So you’ll forgive me if I don’t think it’s my war.
TM: Ouch. Sorry, I didn’t mean to touch a nerve. So is it true what they say? ‘You CAN’T go home again.’
TM: Oh, well, surely you have some opinions on Turkey’s role in Iraqi reconstruction?
SN: Oh, well, in my case, you can’t even go back to Constantinople.
TM: Why’s that?
SN: Well, now they call it Istanbul.
TM: I’m getting that religious persecution is a sore point for you. Is that because people call it ‘X-Mas’ instead of Christmas?
SN: No, that’s because of Cæsar Diocletian made me a martyr in 325, the same year Constantine came to power and legalized Christianity, but a day late and a dollar short for me. Really it was General Galerius who hated Christianity and Diocletian went along with it, he was playing politics, trying to balance the interests Galerius, Maximillian, and Constantine and hold on to power. The Empire had gotten way too big and too corrupt. So you see why I hate politics. It gets in the way of helping people and it gets in the way of spreading the Gospel.
TM: S-S-S-So you’re dead?
SN: No Einstein, I’m seven hundred and three years old. I’m a spirit, of course I’m dead.
TM: Oh, sorry, gosh, you don’t look a day over 500.
SN: Thanks, I gave up smoking in the 1980’s. This is kind of dragging, can you spice it up a little?
TM: Uh, Okay, uh, don’t like politics. How about religion?
SN: Now you’re talkin’. That’s right up my alley. Did you know Lycia was St. Paul’s last stop on his way to Rome?
TM: THE Saint Paul? You got to meet St. Paul?
SN: Well, yeah, but not till 325. His missionary journeys were like 250 years before I was born.
TM: Oh, sure, I get confused.
SN: That’s alright, you’re only mortal, I should cut you some slack. At any rate, as a young man, I wanted the solitary life. I made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where I found a place to withdraw to devote himself to prayer. But God told me that I should return home and spread His Good News. Eventually I was ordained bishop.
TM: Bishop, eh? How do you feel about the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire ordaining Gene Robinson their Bishop?
SN: You don’t let up do you? I thought you were different than other journalist. Is controversy all you’re interested in? I’m known for providing for the poor and needy, and delivering those who had been unjustly accused.
TM: Come on, didn’t you ever face controversy during your lifetime?
SN: Well, some people tell me I wasn’t martyred but I passed away in 334, and my body was stolen and taken to Bari, Italy in 1087. Some people claim that I performed a lot of miracles posthumously, is that controversial enough?
TM: Come on, Nick, readers want something juicy. Were you ever in a fight?
SN: I’m actually most famous for having secretly given money so that three sisters could pay dowries and marry, avoiding being sold into prostitution by their father. That’s where the whole stocking thing started, see I couldn’t just break into someone’s house, what would people think?
TM: No no no, everybody knows that stuff. These days we want our heroes to be macho, aggressive.
SN: There was that time at the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325. That infernal Lybian Arius. He claimed that Jesus wasn’t truly the Son of God. I just couldn’t help my self. He made me so angry, I walloped him one. Why, the other clergy there were so taken aback. Priests aren’t allowed to hit people you know. But they knew I was right.
TM: Wow, you go Santa! Now, be honest, is there anything now days that makes you that angry?
SN: Well, I tell ya, I don’t much care for people trying to make me out to be some kind of Nordic magician or Norse god or something. And it did break my heart when World Trade Center business destroyed tiny St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, about 500 feet from ground zero.
TM: What is the ONE thing that you want readers to remember today, Christmas 2003?
SN: That’s an easy one- “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord!” And “to all a good night!”
Thursday, December 18, 2003
White Christmas
Growing up in Phoenix I’d sometimes get defensive around Michigan relatives who wondered how we could stand Christmas without snow. I’d trace my finger on a map or glob from Phoenix to Bethlehem just to point out that it’s not about the snow.
Needless to say, since my very first December in Nebraska, I’ve been converted. Mind you, I hate shoveling it as much as the next guy. This year I haven’t caught pneumonia or thrown out my back yet, but I have sprained my wrist. And one of the few things I miss about living in LA is sitting by the pool under the palms and bouganvillas this time of year, but now I too am one of those people who just don’t think it’s Christmas, unless the Christmas is white.
Bing Crosby first sang "White Christmas" on his NBC radio show on Christmas Day in 1941, just over two weeks after Pearl Harbor. Little did he know that the song Irving Berlin wrote for a 1942 movie "Holiday Inn" would win an Academy Award for best song. Nor did he have any idea that it become the biggest-selling single of all time.
Did he have any idea that it would become a song about yearning for peace and for "the ones we used to know?" "White Christmas" often brought tears to the eyes of many weary soldiers.
You can plan on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the lovelight gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams
Most years, hearing Crosby croon simply made me think about snow, or about the 1954 movie Crosby made with Danny Kay and Rosemary Clooney.
But this year I can’t help thinking about much more. For one thing, too many of the veterans who helped save the world from the NAZIs and fascism are no longer with us. Or, sick or suffering. For another, too many people my age are separated from their families this Christmas, soldiers in another war.
This time our government tried to lead us to believe that Iraq was to blame for terrorist acts committed by Al Queda, (which was centered in Afghanistan, not Iraq) and this time our government struck first without provocation.
I have a former student, Jamie, getting married this spring. Her brother Matt (another former student) is in Iraq, his unit has been fired upon and lost members in Black Hawk helicopters. Jamie worries so much she often cries herself to sleep.
I have a cheerleader who’ dad I’ve never met. He didn’t come to parent-teacher conferences. That’s because he’s over there too. Actually, he’s not allowed to tell his family where he is exactly. This 7th grade girl hasn’t seen her dad in almost two years. I can’t imagine not seeing my kids for that long.
I know that today’s service men and women are definitely not enjoying the sun, sand and palm trees in Kabal, Baghdad and Tekrit.
If Bob Hope were to take Bing Crosby and his USO show over there for Thanksgiving, I know they’d have gotten a lot of tears if they’d sing Crosby’s 1943 hit, “I'll be home for Christmas.”
Please keep our service men and women and their families in your prayers this season. May your days be merry and bright. And may all your Christmases be white.
Needless to say, since my very first December in Nebraska, I’ve been converted. Mind you, I hate shoveling it as much as the next guy. This year I haven’t caught pneumonia or thrown out my back yet, but I have sprained my wrist. And one of the few things I miss about living in LA is sitting by the pool under the palms and bouganvillas this time of year, but now I too am one of those people who just don’t think it’s Christmas, unless the Christmas is white.
Bing Crosby first sang "White Christmas" on his NBC radio show on Christmas Day in 1941, just over two weeks after Pearl Harbor. Little did he know that the song Irving Berlin wrote for a 1942 movie "Holiday Inn" would win an Academy Award for best song. Nor did he have any idea that it become the biggest-selling single of all time.
Did he have any idea that it would become a song about yearning for peace and for "the ones we used to know?" "White Christmas" often brought tears to the eyes of many weary soldiers.
You can plan on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the lovelight gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams
Most years, hearing Crosby croon simply made me think about snow, or about the 1954 movie Crosby made with Danny Kay and Rosemary Clooney.
But this year I can’t help thinking about much more. For one thing, too many of the veterans who helped save the world from the NAZIs and fascism are no longer with us. Or, sick or suffering. For another, too many people my age are separated from their families this Christmas, soldiers in another war.
This time our government tried to lead us to believe that Iraq was to blame for terrorist acts committed by Al Queda, (which was centered in Afghanistan, not Iraq) and this time our government struck first without provocation.
I have a former student, Jamie, getting married this spring. Her brother Matt (another former student) is in Iraq, his unit has been fired upon and lost members in Black Hawk helicopters. Jamie worries so much she often cries herself to sleep.
I have a cheerleader who’ dad I’ve never met. He didn’t come to parent-teacher conferences. That’s because he’s over there too. Actually, he’s not allowed to tell his family where he is exactly. This 7th grade girl hasn’t seen her dad in almost two years. I can’t imagine not seeing my kids for that long.
I know that today’s service men and women are definitely not enjoying the sun, sand and palm trees in Kabal, Baghdad and Tekrit.
If Bob Hope were to take Bing Crosby and his USO show over there for Thanksgiving, I know they’d have gotten a lot of tears if they’d sing Crosby’s 1943 hit, “I'll be home for Christmas.”
Please keep our service men and women and their families in your prayers this season. May your days be merry and bright. And may all your Christmases be white.
Thursday, December 11, 2003
Thank you President George
I’ve always been the kind of person who says “I never win anything.” Picked last, last place in the race, struck out in baseball, struck out with girls. Charlie Brown. I’d call into radio stations for contests but the line would be busy, or maybe I’d get through but the ninth caller would win and I was the tenth caller, or the producer would put me on hold and then I’d get hung up on before it was time for the DJ to talk to me.
But I’ve discovered the secret to luck. Dumb luck. Call it what you will, but inevitably, you never get what you really want until you stop wanting it. The Hindus call it Nirvanah. Buddah said that the only way to reach true inner peace was the absence of all desire. Jesus said that whoever would save his life must lose it.
I didn’t meet the love of my life until I gave up “looking for love in all the right places. Anyway, here’s the story about my recent streak of good luck.
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving I was packing lunches and listening to the news on National Public Radio (KWIT 90.3fm) when Bethany called down to me from brushing her teeth.
“Which President made Thanksgiving a Holiday?” she asked?
“Lincoln made it a CONTINUOUS, annual holiday, FDR made it the third Thursday, why?” I volleyed back, trying not to sound TOO much like Cliff Claven from ‘Cheers.’
“In 1789?” She asked.
“Only one guy was president in 1789,” I said.
“Call ‘the Bridge’ right now, they’re having a contest.” And she gave me the phone number.(‘the Bridge is a Christian station in Omaha, KGBI 100.7 fm.) I was in no hurry or panic since I not only knew the answer, but didn’t believe I had a snowballs chance in Havana of getting through anyway.
“Good morning, this is the Bridge, who was the President to first make Thanksgiving an official holiday in 1789?” asked the voice.
“Well, since the Constitution was just drafted in 1787, I’m going to say President George Washington.” I answered, trying to sound unsure of myself- which wasn’t hard since I was so shocked that I was actually speaking to a radio personality.
“That’s exactly right! What are you doing this morning?” asked the DJ.
“Uh, getting ready to go to school?” I said without thinking.
“Where do you go to school?” wow, I must sound young.
“Um, I teach at Boyer Valley in Dunlap.” I replied.
“Uh, oh, You don’t teach History do you?” shoot, I wondered if they were going to disqualify me or something.
“Uh, no, Art and Yearbook.” I muttered, as if I need to be ashamed that I teach Art, rather than History. I feel the same way when I tell people that I coach cheerleading rather than basketball. Of course, I didn’t go into it with the DJ that I did major in History and had taught it for the better part of a decade.
I was amazed at how quickly the prize came in the mail. Just a day or two, but I still didn’t think of myself as “a winner.” The prize was a CD and a DVD. Both of my favorite Christian musician, Steven Curtis Chapman. I had already gotten the CD for Bethany for Valentines Day (Arizona Statehood Day) and we didn’t have a DVD player, we still used the same VHS recorder we got as a wedding present. So I still felt like a loser. I was Charlie Brown on Halloween night when all the other kids are getting candy bars and money and popcorn balls, I got a rock.
So last week, at Santa Claus night in Charter Oak, I didn’t expect to win anything. I thought it would be great to win a turkey. Actually, I’m such a pessimist, I totally expected to win doughnuts and be embarrassed about how fat I am. Either that or I’d win a subscription to the NEWSpaper, which I already have.
Needless to say, I did a double take and didn’t believe my ears when my name was drawn for the DVD player. Part of me wanted to hide. I didn’t deserve this. Part of me wanted to jump up and down and squeal like a contestant on ‘the Price is Right.’ Wow, I’m not a total loser, I’m not, I’m not.
But you know what, it was a million times more exciting, more fulfilling, more thrilling, and more important to hear Gracie’s name drawn for the bike. It’s pretty big for her yet and she has a tough time with coordination, but wow. Just wow. That was really cool. I get to be related to her. She’s in my family. I’m pretty lucky.
But I’ve discovered the secret to luck. Dumb luck. Call it what you will, but inevitably, you never get what you really want until you stop wanting it. The Hindus call it Nirvanah. Buddah said that the only way to reach true inner peace was the absence of all desire. Jesus said that whoever would save his life must lose it.
I didn’t meet the love of my life until I gave up “looking for love in all the right places. Anyway, here’s the story about my recent streak of good luck.
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving I was packing lunches and listening to the news on National Public Radio (KWIT 90.3fm) when Bethany called down to me from brushing her teeth.
“Which President made Thanksgiving a Holiday?” she asked?
“Lincoln made it a CONTINUOUS, annual holiday, FDR made it the third Thursday, why?” I volleyed back, trying not to sound TOO much like Cliff Claven from ‘Cheers.’
“In 1789?” She asked.
“Only one guy was president in 1789,” I said.
“Call ‘the Bridge’ right now, they’re having a contest.” And she gave me the phone number.(‘the Bridge is a Christian station in Omaha, KGBI 100.7 fm.) I was in no hurry or panic since I not only knew the answer, but didn’t believe I had a snowballs chance in Havana of getting through anyway.
“Good morning, this is the Bridge, who was the President to first make Thanksgiving an official holiday in 1789?” asked the voice.
“Well, since the Constitution was just drafted in 1787, I’m going to say President George Washington.” I answered, trying to sound unsure of myself- which wasn’t hard since I was so shocked that I was actually speaking to a radio personality.
“That’s exactly right! What are you doing this morning?” asked the DJ.
“Uh, getting ready to go to school?” I said without thinking.
“Where do you go to school?” wow, I must sound young.
“Um, I teach at Boyer Valley in Dunlap.” I replied.
“Uh, oh, You don’t teach History do you?” shoot, I wondered if they were going to disqualify me or something.
“Uh, no, Art and Yearbook.” I muttered, as if I need to be ashamed that I teach Art, rather than History. I feel the same way when I tell people that I coach cheerleading rather than basketball. Of course, I didn’t go into it with the DJ that I did major in History and had taught it for the better part of a decade.
I was amazed at how quickly the prize came in the mail. Just a day or two, but I still didn’t think of myself as “a winner.” The prize was a CD and a DVD. Both of my favorite Christian musician, Steven Curtis Chapman. I had already gotten the CD for Bethany for Valentines Day (Arizona Statehood Day) and we didn’t have a DVD player, we still used the same VHS recorder we got as a wedding present. So I still felt like a loser. I was Charlie Brown on Halloween night when all the other kids are getting candy bars and money and popcorn balls, I got a rock.
So last week, at Santa Claus night in Charter Oak, I didn’t expect to win anything. I thought it would be great to win a turkey. Actually, I’m such a pessimist, I totally expected to win doughnuts and be embarrassed about how fat I am. Either that or I’d win a subscription to the NEWSpaper, which I already have.
Needless to say, I did a double take and didn’t believe my ears when my name was drawn for the DVD player. Part of me wanted to hide. I didn’t deserve this. Part of me wanted to jump up and down and squeal like a contestant on ‘the Price is Right.’ Wow, I’m not a total loser, I’m not, I’m not.
But you know what, it was a million times more exciting, more fulfilling, more thrilling, and more important to hear Gracie’s name drawn for the bike. It’s pretty big for her yet and she has a tough time with coordination, but wow. Just wow. That was really cool. I get to be related to her. She’s in my family. I’m pretty lucky.
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